text: sms siegfried sms siegfried was the lead ship of the six - member siegfried class of coastal defense ships ( küstenpanzerschiffe ) built for the german imperial navy . her sister ships were beowulf , frithjof , heimdall , hildebrand , and hagen . siegfried was built by the germaniawerft shipyard between 1888 and 1890 , and was armed with a main battery of three 24 - centimeter ( 9 . 4 in ) guns . she served in the german fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1903 - 1904 . she served in the vi battle squadron after the outbreak of world war i in august 1914 , but saw no action . siegfried was demobilized in 1915 and used as a barracks ship thereafter . she was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1920 . design siegfried was 79 meters ( 259 ft ) long overall and had a beam of 14 . 90 m ( 48 . 9 ft ) and a maximum draft of 5 . 74 m ( 18 . 8 ft ) . she displaced 3 , 741 long tons ( 3 , 801 t ) at full combat load . her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines . steam for the engines was provided by four coal - fired boilers . the ship 's propulsion system provided a top speed of 14 . 9 knots ( 27 . 6 km / h ; 17 . 1 mph ) and a range of approximately 1 , 490 nautical miles ( 2 , 760 km ; 1 , 710 mi ) at 10 knots ( 19 km / h ; 12 mph ) . siegfried had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men . the ship was armed with three 24 cm k l / 35 guns mounted in three single gun turrets . two were placed side by side forward , and the third was located aft of the main superstructure . they were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition . the ship was also equipped with six 8 . 8 cm sk l / 30 guns in single mounts . siegfried also carried four 35 cm ( 14 in ) torpedo tubes , all in swivel mounts on the deck . one was at the bow , another at the stern , and two amidships . the ship was protected by an armored belt that was 240 mm ( 9 . 4 in ) amidships , and an armored deck that was 30 mm ( 1 . 2 in ) thick . the conning tower had 80 mm ( 3 . 1 in ) thick sides . service history siegfried was laid down in 1888 at the germaniawerft shipyard in kiel . she was launched on 10 august 1889 , and completed on 19 april 1890 . she was commissioned into the fleet on 29 april , and joined the i division of the german fleet , along with the older ironclads baden , bayern , and oldenburg , under vizeadmiral karl deinhard . the i division participated in several fleet maneuvers in 1891 , where they typically served as the german side in the war games . siegfried did not participate in the 1892 maneuvers , having been replaced in the i division by her recently - commissioned sister ship beowulf . over the winter of 1892 - 1893 , siegfried and beowulf joined the elderly ironclads könig wilhelm and deutschland for a winter training cruise in the mediterranean sea . siegfried again sat out the 1893 fleet maneuvers , instead of her sister frithjof , which had just joined the fleet . in the 1897 maneuvers , siegfried and all five of her sister ships formed the iii division . in 1898 , siegfried again participated in the annual summer maneuvers in the iii division , along with beowulf and hildebrand . her other three sisters were assigned to the iv division . during the 1900 summer maneuvers , siegfried served in the simulated hostile squadron , alongside heimdall , hildebrand , and ägir . siegfried served on active duty until 1903 , when she was withdrawn from service . starting in 1903 , she was taken into drydock at the kaiserliche werft shipyard in danzig for an extensive reconstruction . the ship was lengthened to 86 . 13 m ( 282 . 6 ft ) , which increased displacement to 4 , 237 t ( 4 , 170 long tons ; 4 , 670 short tons ) . her old boilers were replaced with eight new marine type boilers , and a second funnel was added . her secondary battery was increased to ten 8 . 8 cm guns , and the 35 cm torpedo tubes were replaced with three 45 cm ( 18 in ) tubes . work was completed by 1904 . she was brought back on active duty at the outbreak of world war i in august 1914 , and mobilized into the vi battle squadron for coastal defense , along with her sister ships . on 31 august 1915 , the vi battle squadron was demobilized , and siegfried 's crew was transferred to other warships . she was then used as a barracks ship in wilhelmshaven , a role she filled until the end of the war . on 17 june 1919 , she was stricken from the naval register . the navy planned to convert her into a salvage ship , but the plan was abandoned and she was instead sold for 425 , 000 marks to h. peters in . siegfried was broken up for scrap the following year in kiel - nordmole .