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SMS Friedrich Carl was an armored cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. A member of the Prinz Adalbert class, the ship was intended to act as a scout for the fleet's battleships and to patrol the German colonial empire. The Prinz Adalbert class was based on the earlier armored cruiser Prinz Heinrich, but with improved armament and armor. Built in the early 1900s, Friedrich Carl served in the German fleet from 1904 to 1909, which included a period as flagship of the reconnaissance squadron and a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was then used as a torpedo test vessel from 1909 until the start of World War I in July 1914. Friedrich Carl was assigned to the Cruiser Division of the Baltic Sea, serving as its flagship. On 17 November 1914, the ship struck a Russian naval mine off Memel and sank, though only seven or eight men were killed in the sinking. (This article is part of a featured topic: Armored cruisers of Germany.)