Today's classic warship, SMS Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst class armored cruiser
Displacement. 11,600 t.
Lenght. 449'9"
Beam. 71'
Draft. 25'
Speed. 22.5 kt.
Complement. 850
Armament. 8 8.2", 6 5.9", 20 3.4", 4 17.7" tt.
SMS Scharnhorst, a 11,616-ton armored cruiser built at Hamburg, Germany, was commissioned in October 1907. After her initial service, she generally was assigned abroad.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Scharnhorst was the flagship of the German East Asiatic Squadron. For nearly five months, she and her consorts in the squadron led by Vice Admiral Graf von Spee conducted a campaign in the Pacific ocean against Germany's enemies. This included a lopsided victory over a British cruiser force, under Rear Admiral Cradock, in the Battle of Coronel, off the west coast of South America on 1 November 1914. In just 40 minutes the British armored cruisers HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth were sent to the bottom, along with 1400 men, including Admiral Cradock.
Five weeks later, on 8 December 1914, von Spee's squadron encountered a greatly superior British force, including the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible, when it attempted to attack Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands. In the running gunfire action that followed, SMS Scharnhorst was sunk with Admiral Graf von Spee and her entire crew.
Y'all may have noticed that for the past few weeks I have ocasionally ridiculed a french ship in "Today's classic warship". I originally intended to do the same with some german ships, however the german ships had a rather nasty habit of fighting to the end. It's kind of hard to ridicule a ship that goes down with guns blazing. Besides, german ships look good, unlike those ridiculous french ships.