SMS Helgoland (1909)

SMS Helgoland c. 1911–1917
History
German Empire
Name	Helgoland
Namesake	Heligoland
Builder	Howaldtswerke, Kiel
Laid down	11 November 1908
Launched	25 September 1909
Commissioned	23 August 1911
Decommissioned	16 December 1918
Stricken	5 November 1919
Fate	Ceded to Great Britain in 1920. Scrapped in 1921
General characteristics
Class and type	Helgoland-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 22,808 t (22,448 long tons) Full load: 24,700 t (24,300 long tons)
Length	167.20 m (548 ft 7 in)
Beam	28.50 m (93 ft 6 in)
Draft	8.94 m (29 ft 4 in)
Installed power	15 × water-tube boilers 28,000 PS (28,000 ihp)
Propulsion	3 × triple-expansion steam engines 3 × screw propellers
Speed	20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph)
Range	5,500 nautical miles (10,190 km; 6,330 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	42 officers 1027 enlisted
Armament	12 × 30.5 cm (12 in) SK L/50 guns 14 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns 14 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns 6 × 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 300 mm (11.8 in) Turrets: 300 mm Deck: 63.5 mm (2.50 in)

SMS Helgoland,^[a] the lead ship of her class, was a dreadnought battleship of the German Imperial Navy. Helgoland's design represented an incremental improvement over the preceding Nassau class, including an increase in the caliber of the main guns, from 28 cm (11 in) to 30.5 cm (12 in). Her keel was laid down on 11 November 1908 at the Howaldtswerke shipyards in Kiel. Helgoland was launched on 25 September 1909 and was commissioned on 23 August 1911.

Like most battleships of the High Seas Fleet, Helgoland saw limited action against Britain's Royal Navy during World War I. The ship participated in several fruitless sweeps into the North Sea as the covering force for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group. She saw some limited duty in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy, including serving as part of a support force during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Helgoland was present at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, though she was located in the center of the German line of battle and not as heavily engaged as the König- and Kaiser-class ships in the lead. Helgoland was ceded to Great Britain at the end of the war and broken up for scrap in the early 1920s. Her coat of arms is preserved in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden.
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