Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: Did the SMS Seydlitz sink?
The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd, Reuter ordered the ships to be sunk at the next opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.[75] Seydlitz slipped beneath the surface at 13:50. On her side and on the bottom in twelve fathoms of water the wreck was frequently mistaken for a small island, and was sold in this condition as scrap to the salvage firm of Cox and Danks, led by Ernest Cox, along with a battleship and twenty-six destroyers. The ship was raised on 2 November 1928, and while still inverted was towed south to be scrapped in Rosyth by 1930. Seydlitz's bell is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial.[5]
By 14:00, Boedicker's ships had reached a position off Norderney, at which point he turned his ships northward to avoid the Dutch observers on the island of Terschelling. At 15:38, Seydlitz struck a mine, which tore a 15m (50-foot) hole in her hull, just abaft of the starboard broadside torpedo tube. 11 men were killed and 1,400 short tons (1,200 long tons) of water entered the ship. The ship's draft increased 1.4 metres (4.6ft) at the bow of the ship.[29] Seydlitz turned back with the screen of light cruisers at a speed of 15 knots (28km/h). The four remaining battlecruisers turned south immediately in the direction of Norderney to avoid further mine damage. By 16:00, Seydlitz was clear of imminent danger, so the ship stopped to allow Boedicker to disembark. The torpedo boat V28 brought Boedicker to Lützow, and the operation continued as planned. After Boedicker departed the ship, Seydlitz, escorted by a pair of torpedo boats, withdrew southward to the Jade.[30] She was out of service for over a month for repair work due to the mine damage.[31]
Seydlitz was generally admired for the superb "coup d'œil" that allowed him to utilize the cavalry to its full potential. His 19th-century biographer, K. A. Varnhagen von Ense, related that Seydlitz lived above all for the service, and promoted the training of his hussars before all else. According to Anton Balthasar König, who wrote in 1780–1790, Seydlitz performed best at taverns and excelled in practical jokes: one would gather that Seydlitz was a drunkard, a rake, and a savage, but another of his biographers, Bernhard von Poten, cited conflicting descriptions offered by Seydlitz's contemporaries, particularly Warnery, as more accurate. Nevertheless, there is some evidence to support König's assertion, at least of Seydlitz's excesses: Seydlitz was no doubt dependent upon his tobacco and had been since his teenage years, although he smoked a pipe rather than using snuff, as many officers did; he was indeed reckless, as his career testified; he enjoyed the company of women; and Seydlitz indeed suffered from recurring illness.
By 14:00, Boedicker's ships had reached a position off Norderney, at which point he turned his ships northward to avoid the Dutch observers on the island of Terschelling. At 15:38, "Seydlitz" struck a naval mine, which tore a 50-foot (15 m) hole in her hull, just abaft of the starboard broadside torpedo tube, allowing 1,400 short tons (1,250 long tons) of water to enter the ship. "Seydlitz" turned back, with the screen of light cruisers, at a speed of . The four remaining battlecruisers turned south immediately in the direction of Norderney to avoid further mine damage. By 16:00, "Seydlitz" was clear of imminent danger, so the ship stopped to allow Boedicker to disembark. The torpedo boat brought Boedicker to "Lützow".
Seydlitz was 200 meters (656ft 2in) long at the waterline, and 200.6m (658ft 2in) overall. The ship had a beam of 28.5m (93ft 6in), which was increased to 28.8m (94ft 6in) with anti-torpedo nets equipped. She had a draft of 9.29m (30ft 6in) forward and 9.09m (29ft 10in) aft. Seydlitz displaced 24,988 tonnes (24,593 long tons) as designed, and carrying a full load, the ship displaced 28,550 tonnes (28,100 long tons). Seydlitz had a double bottom for 76percent of the length of the hull.[4] The ship carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, three barges, two launches, two yawls, and two dinghies. Seydlitz was described as having been a good sea boat with gentle motion. The ship lost up to 60percent of her speed at a hard rudder, and would heel over to 9degrees. The ship had a standard complement of 43 officers and 1025 men, and when serving as the flagship of I Scouting Group , she was manned by an additional 13 officers and 62 men.[5]
Salvaging Seydlitz also proved difficult, as the ship sank again during the first attempt to raise her, wrecking most of the salvage equipment. Undaunted, Cox tried again, ordering that when she was next raised, news cameras would be there to capture him witnessing the moment. The plan nearly backfired when Seydlitz was accidentally refloated while Cox was holidaying in Switzerland. Cox told the workers to sink her again, then returned to Britain to be present as Seydlitz was duly refloated a third time.[78]
The battlecruisers were ordered to take positions at the rear behind II Squadron, because of their severe battle damage. Admiral Hipper had been forced to leave his flagship SMS "Lützow" and had some trouble boarding another ship in the course of the battle. At 2115 he boarded SMS "Moltke" and again assumed command, initially mistakenly ordering the ships to move to the head of the column. Only SMS "Seydlitz" and "Moltke" could immediately comply: SMS "Derfflinger" had too many holes to travel at speed, and SMS "Von der Tann" needed to clean ash from her boilers forcing her to steam slowly. When "Derfflinger" and "Von der Tann" drew abreast of the flagship SMS "Friedrich der Grosse", Scheer once again ordered them to the rear. The two joined the end of the German column, but "Seydlitz" and "Moltke" remained out of position initially ahead of the fleet and had to move independently through the British fleet. "Lützow" proceeded southwards behind the fleet for the first couple of hours of the night at the best speed she could manage, seven knots, but eventually sank at 0145.
By May 1932, Cox had raised the battlecruisers SMS "Moltke", SMS "Seydlitz", , and SMS "Hindenburg"; the battleships and , and the light cruiser .
On 15 June 1916, repair work to Seydlitz began in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, and continued until 1 October. The ship then underwent individual training, and rejoined the fleet in November. With his previous flagship Lützow at the bottom of the North Sea, Hipper again raised his flag in Seydlitz. On 4 November, Seydlitz and Moltke, along with the II Division, I Battle Squadron, the III Battle Squadron, and the new battleship Bayern sailed to Bovbjerg on the Danish coast, in order to retrieve the stranded U-boats U-20 and U-30.[64]
At 00:45, Seydlitz was attempting to thread her way through the British fleet, but was sighted by the dreadnought Agincourt and noted as a "ship or Destroyer". Agincourt's captain did not want to risk giving away his ship's position, and so allowed her to pass.[62] By 01:12, Seydlitz had managed to slip through the British fleet, and she was able to head for the safety of Horns Reef.[63] At approximately 03:40, she scraped over Horns Reef. Both of the ship's gyro-compasses had failed, so the light cruiser Pillau was sent to guide the ship home. By 15:30 on 1 June, Seydlitz was in critical condition; the bow was nearly completely submerged, and the only buoyancy that remained in the forward section of the ship was the broadside torpedo room. Preparations were being made to evacuate the wounded crew when a pair of pump steamers arrived on the scene. The ships were able to stabilize Seydlitz's flooding, and the ship managed to limp back to port. She reached the outer Jade river on the morning of 2 June, and on 3 June the ship entered Entrance III of the Wilhelmshaven Lock. At most, Seydlitz had been flooded by 5,308 tonnes (5,224 long tons) of water.[64]
On 24–25April 1916, the I Scouting Group undertook another operation to bombard the English coast, this time, the towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Hipper was on sick leave, so the German ships were under the command of Konteradmiral Friedrich Boedicker, who flew his flag in Seydlitz. The German battlecruisers Derfflinger, Lützow, Moltke, Seydlitz and Von der Tann left the Jade Estuary at 10:55 on 24 April, and were supported by a screening force of 6 light cruisers and two torpedo boat flotillas.[29] The heavy units of the High Seas Fleet sailed at 13:40, with the objective to provide distant support for Boedicker's ships. The British Admiralty was made aware of the German sortie through the interception of German wireless signals, and deployed the Grand Fleet at 15:50.[29]
By Seydlitz's seventh year, he could ride a horse well, raced with older boys, and he was, by most accounts, a wild and high-spirited child. At the age of fourteen he went as a page to the court of the Margrave Frederick Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt, who had been his father's colonel. The Margrave was a grandson of the Great Elector, and a nephew to both Frederick I of Prussia and Leopold of Anhalt Dessau. Himself a reckless man, the "Mad" Margrave inspired in young Seydlitz a passion for feats of daredevil horsemanship. Seydlitz did not limit this passion to horses: the Margrave once dared him to ride a wild stag, which he did. Seydlitz became a skilled horseman, and many stories tell of his feats, the best known of which involved riding between the sails of a windmill in full swing. Seydlitz remained in his position as a page to the Margrave until King Frederick William appointed him as cornet in the Margrave's Cuirassier Regiment No. 5 (his father's old regiment) on 13 February 1740.
During the night of 15 December, the main body of the High Seas Fleet encountered British destroyers. Fearing the prospect of a nighttime torpedo attack, Ingenohl ordered the ships to retreat.[15] Hipper was unaware of Ingenohl's reversal, and so he continued with the bombardment. Upon reaching the British coast, Hipper's battlecruisers split into two groups. Seydlitz, Moltke, and Blücher went north to shell Hartlepool, while Von der Tann and Derfflinger went south to shell Scarborough and Whitby.[16] During the bombardment of Hartlepool, Seydlitz was hit three times and Blücher was hit six times by the coastal battery. Seydlitz suffered only minimal damage, and no casualties.[16] By 09:45 on the 16th, the two groups had reassembled, and they began to retreat eastward.[17]
Seydlitz was struck in her forecastle at 10:25, by a 13.5in (343mm) shell from Lion, but this hit did minor damage. At 10:40, Lion hit Seydlitz with another 13.5in shell, which holed the deck and penetrated the rear barbette. The shell itself failed to enter the barbette, but the explosion flashed into the working chamber and detonated the propellant charges inside.[8]
By 22:15, Hipper was finally able to transfer to "Moltke", and then ordered his ships to steam at towards the head of the German line. However, only "Moltke" and "Seydlitz" were in condition to comply; "Derfflinger" and "Von der Tann" could make at most 18 knots, and so these ships lagged behind. "Moltke" and "Seydlitz" were in the process of steaming to the front of the line when the ships passed close to "Stettin", which forced the ship to drastically slow down to avoid collision. This forced "Frauenlob", "Stuttgart", and "München" to turn to port, which led them into contact with the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; at a range of , the cruisers on both sides pummeled each other. Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to attempt to lure the British cruisers towards "Moltke" and "Seydlitz". However, nearly simultaneously, the heavily damaged British cruisers broke off the attack. As the light cruisers were disengaging, a torpedo fired by struck "Frauenlob", and the ship exploded. The German formation fell into disarray, and in the confusion, "Seydlitz" lost sight of "Moltke". "Seydlitz" was no longer able to keep up with "Moltke"s , and so detached herself to proceed to the Horns Reef lighthouse independently.
Seydlitz was launched on 30 March 1912, and was christened by General der Kavallerie Karl Wilhelm Heinrich von Kleist. On 22 May 1913 the ship was commissioned into the German fleet, manned by the crew of the old armored cruiser Yorck, which had been recently transferred to the reserve fleet.[1] After trials, Seydlitz joined the rest of the High Seas Fleet for maneuvers off Helgoland. Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper, the commander of the I Scouting Group, raised his flag in the ship on 23 June 1914. The ship served as Hipper's flagship until 26 October 1917.[8]
three high resolution dockyard drawings.
Seydlitz was repaired at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Wilhelmshaven from 25 January to 31 March 1915, after which she rejoined the fleet.[8]
As the evening wore on, visibility steadily decreased for the German ships. Seydlitz's commander, Kapitän zur See von Egidy, later remarked:
During the course of the battle, Seydlitz was hit 21 times by heavy-caliber shells, twice by secondary battery shells, and once by a torpedo.[66] The ship suffered a total of 98 of her crew killed and 55 wounded.[67] Seydlitz herself fired 376 main battery shells and scored approximately 10 hits.[64]
By 14:00, Boedicker's ships had reached a position off Norderney, at which point he turned his ships northward to avoid the Dutch observers on the island of Terschelling. At 15:38, "Seydlitz" struck a mine, which tore a 50-ft (15-m) hole in her hull, just abaft of the starboard broadside torpedo tube, which allowed 1,400-t (1,500-short tons) of water to enter the ship. "Seydlitz" turned back, with the screen of light cruisers, at a speed of 15 knots. The four remaining battlecruisers turned south immediately in the direction of Norderney to avoid further mine damage. By 16:00, "Seydlitz" was clear of imminent danger, so the ship stopped to allow Boedicker to disembark. The torpedo boat brought Boedicker to "Lützow".
"Seydlitz" was sighted at about 2400 by "Marlborough", who did nothing. The second ship in the squadron, "Revenge" (Captain Kiddle) challenged the unidentified ship, and received the wrong response, but took no action. "Agincourt" (Captain Doughty) at the rear of the line spotted her but "did not challenge her so as not to give our division's position away". Light cruisers "Boadicea" and "Fearless" (Captain Roper) also spotted "Seydlitz", but followed the example of the battleships and did nothing. Roper stated that by the time he could identify the ship, it was too late to fire a torpedo at her ("Fearless" was capable of 25 knots compared to "Seydlitz's" maximum 16 knots because of the damage). "Seydlitz", already badly damaged and unable to put up much of a fight, was able to limp back to Germany.
The explosion killed 159 men, and destroyed both of the rear turrets. The fire was prevented from spreading to the shell magazines, which could have destroyed the ship, by the quick action of the executive officer, who ordered both magazines be flooded.[lower-alpha 6] The Pumpenmeister Wilhelm Heidkamp was severely injured when he turned the red-hot valves to flood the magazines.[23] At 11:01, Seydlitz struck back at Lion, and with a single 28cm shell, knocked out two of Lion's engines. Shortly thereafter, a pair of 30.5cm shells fired by Derfflinger struck Lion, one at the waterline. The penetration allowed water to enter the port feed tank—this hit eventually crippled Lion, the sea water contamination forced the ship's crew to shut down the port engine.[24] At 11:25, Seydlitz was struck on her armored belt amidships by a third and final shell, which did little damage.[8]
Following the operation, Seydlitz and the other heavy units of the High Seas Fleet returned to the North Sea. On 11–12 September, Seydlitz and the rest of the I Scouting Group covered a minefield laying operation off Terschelling. On 24 November, the ship ran aground in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, but was quickly refloated. On 4 December, while exiting the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, Seydlitz became entangled in one of the net barriers. Divers had to remove the tangled nets from the starboard screws.[23]
On 3 August 1915, Seydlitz, Moltke, and Von der Tann were transferred to the Baltic with I Reconnaissance Group (AG) to participate in a planned foray into the Riga Gulf. The intention was to destroy the Russian naval forces in the area, including the pre-dreadnought Slava, and to use the minelayer Deutschland to block the entrance to Moon Sound with naval mines. The German forces, under the command of Hipper, included the four Nassau and four Helgoland-class battleships, the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Moltke, and Von der Tann, and a number of smaller craft.[28] Throughout the operation, Seydlitz and the other two battlecruisers remained in the Baltic and provided cover for the assault into the Gulf of Riga.[23]