SMS Kaiser (1911)

SMS "Kaiser" was the lead ship of the "Kaiser" class of battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine (German Imperial Navy) in World War I. "Kaiser" was the German title of the monarch of the German Empire, equal to "emperor" in English.

She was built by the Naval Dockyard at Kiel, was launched on 22 March 1911 and commissioned on 1 August 1912. She fought at the Battle of Jutland as part of the "Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet)", Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in September-October 1917 and at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917.

After the end of World War I, she was interned with almost all the remaining ships of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in Orkney. On 21 June 1919, her German crew scuttled her -- as did the crews of all the other ships in the fleet. The wreck was subsequently raised and broken up at Rosyth between 1929 and 1937.

See also

* List of German Imperial Navy ships
* List of naval ships of Germany
* List of ship launches in 1911
* List of ship commissionings in 1912
* List of shipwrecks in 1919

External links

* [http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/germany/battleships/kaiser/sms_kaiser.htm MaritimeQuest image gallery]