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| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Elbing |
| Namesake | City of Elbing |
| Builder | Schichau-Werke, Danzig |
| Laid down | 21 May 1913 |
| Launched | 21 November 1914 |
| Commissioned | 4 September 1915 |
| Fate | Scuttled at the Battle of Jutland on 1 June 1916 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Pillau-class light cruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 135.3 m (444 ft) |
| Beam | 13.6 m (45 ft) |
| Draft | 5.98 m (19.6 ft) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h) |
| Range | 4,300 nmi (8,000 km; 4,900 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMS Elbing was a light cruiser ordered by the Imperial Russian navy under the name Admiral Nevelskoy from the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig in 1913. Following the outbreak of World War I, the ship was confiscated in August 1914 and launched on 21 November 1914 as SMS Elbing. She had one sister ship, Pillau, the lead ship of their class. The ship was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in September 1915. She was armed with a main battery of eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of 27.5 kn (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).
Elbing participated in only two major operations during her career. The first, the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, occurred in April 1916; there, she briefly engaged the British Harwich Force. A month later, she took part in the Battle of Jutland, where she scored the first hit of the engagement. She was heavily engaged in the confused fighting on the night of 31 May – 1 June, and shortly after midnight she was accidentally rammed by the battleship Posen, which tore a hole in the ship's hull. Flooding disabled the ship's engines and electrical generators, rendering her immobilized and without power. At around 02:00, a German torpedo boat took off most of her crew, and an hour later the remaining men scuttled the ship; they escaped in the ship's cutter and were later picked up by a Dutch steamer.