photo.jpg

## Helgoland (ship) ### Overview The Helgoland was a German pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into service in 1911. It was ordered as a replacement for the old coastal defense ship Siegfried. The ship was 167.2 m (548 ft 7 in) long, with a beam of 28.5 m (93 ft 6 in) and a draft of 8.94 m (29...

## Helgoland (ship) ### Overview The Helgoland was a German pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into service in 1911. It was ordered as a replacement for the old coastal defense ship Siegfried. The ship was 167.2 m (548 ft 7 in) long, with a beam of 28.5 m (93 ft 6 in) and a draft of 8.94 m (29 ft 4 in). Its full load displacement was 24,700 metric tons (24,310 long tons). ### Design The Helgoland was a flush deck with a minimal superstructure consisting of a large armored conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning position further aft. There were two pole masts for searchlights and spotting tops, and a crew of 42 officers and 1,071 enlisted men. ### Propulsion The ship was powered by three triple-expansion steam engines and fifteen water-tube boilers that were vented through three closely spaced funnels placed forward. It could hold up to 3,200 metric tons (3,100 long tons) of coal, which allowed it to steam for 5,500 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). After 1915, the boilers were modified to burn oil, and the ship could carry 194 long tons of fuel oil. ### Armament - 12 x 30.5 cm (12 in) SK L/50 guns in six twin gun turrets, with two of the guns facing forward, two on each flank of the ship, and two on the rearmost turret - 14 x 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L guns in casemates in the side of the upper deck - 14 x 8.8 cm guns (two were replaced with 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns in 1914) - 6 x 50 cm torpedo tubes, one in the bow, one in the stern, and two on each broadside ### Armor - 300 mm (11.8 in) thick on the central citadel - same thickness of KCA on the sides and faces of the main battery gun turrets - 63.5 mm (2.5 in) thick deck ### Service history - The ship was built by Howaldtswerke in Kiel under construction number 500. - Work began on 24 December 1908 and the ship was launched less than a year later, on 25 September 1909. - It was named after the Helgoland islands, considered vital to the defense of the Kiel Canal - The ship was commissioned into active service on 23 August 1911, after completion of the superstructure and installation of armament. - On 9 February 1912, the crew beat the German record for loading coal, taking 1,100 tons of coal, surpassing the previous record held by the crew of the Nassau-class battleship Posen. - The pre-dreadnought Hannover was replaced by the Helgoland in I Battle Squadron on 19 December 1911.