SMS Prinz Heinrich

Seiner Majestät Schiff "Prinz Heinrich" was a unique armored cruiser built by the Kaiserliche Marine at the turn of the 20th century. "Prinz Heinrich's" design set a precedent for subsequent German armored cruisers by concentrating her secondary armament admidships, as opposed to the previous "Fürst Bismarck" unique armored cruiser, which spread the secondary armament along the length of the ship.

Design

Dimensions and machinery

"Prinz Heinrich" was built at Kiel Navy Dockyard; laid down in December 1898, and completed in March 1902, at a cost of 16,588,000 Marks. She was convert|410|ft|1|in|m at the waterline, convert|415|ft|4|in|m overall. She had a beam of convert|64|ft|4|in|m, and a draught of convert|26|ft|6|in|m "Prinz Heinrich" displaced 8,857 tons standard, and 9,806 tons at full load. She was powered by a 3 shaft, triple expansion engine, producing convert|15695|ihp|abbr=on and a top speed of convert|20|kn|km/h|0.

Armor

"Prinz Heinrich" was protected by a four inch (102 mm) thick armor belt. Her turrets had six inch (152 mm) thick faces, and her deck was covered by two inches of armor plate.

Armament

Her main armament consisted of two convert|9.4|in|mm|0|sing=on guns in single turrets, one fore, one aft. Secondary armament included ten convert|5.9|in|mm|0|sing=on guns in casemates and another ten 3.45 inch (88 mm) guns, also casemated. "Prinz Heinrich" was also armed with four submerged convert|17.7|in|mm|0|sing=on torpedo tubes.

ervice History

At the start of World War I, "Prinz Heinrich" was assigned to the III Scouting Group. She participated in the operation to bombard Hartlepool on 16 December, 1914. "Prinz Heinrich", along with "Roon", was assigned to the van of the High Seas Fleet, which was providing distant cover to Rear Admiral Hipper's battlecruisers, which were conducting the bombardment. [ Scheer, p69]

In April 1915, she was transferred to the Baltic Sea, although less than a year later, in March 1916, she became a barracks ship, and served in that capacity until the end of the war. "Prinz Heinrich" was scrapped in 1920.

Footnotes

References

*cite book |last=Scheer|first=Reinhard |authorlink=Reinhard Scheer|title=Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War|year=1920|location=|publisher=Cassell and Company, ltd|isbn=

External links

* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/armoured-cruiser/sms-prinz-heinrich.html World War 1 Naval Combat]