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SMS Konig Wilhelm (1869)

History of SMS Konig Wilhelm (1869)

SMS Konig Wilhelm was originally commissioned by the Ottoman Navy as 'Fatikh' and saw her keel laid by the Thames Iron Works in London in 1865. However, her future changed rapidly when she was sold to the Kingdom of Prussia in early 1867, but after the sinking of the Prussian Navy her final career would be in Germany.

Launched on April 25, 1868. The SMS Konig Wilhelm was completed in 1869 and commissioned on 20 February 1869. When she was commissioned by the Prussian Navy, it was the most powerful ship in the fleet.

The warship had a displacement of 10,755 tons (short), a length of 368 feet, a beam of 60 feet, and a draft of 28 feet. She is powered by 8 hull boilers providing the drive single shaft for a 2 cylinder horizontal single expansion Maudslay, Son & Field (London) steam engine. Under ideal conditions, she can travel at nearly 15 knots and maintain a range of up to 1,300 nautical miles.

Despite her machinery, the ship was equipped with three sail masts to complement her more onboard propulsion system - a practice in warship design at the time.

King William's garrison numbered 730 men. The thickness of the armor belt reaches 395 mm, and the thickness at the battery reaches 150 mm.

The primary armament initially consisted of a 33 x 72 pounder gun, which later became an 18 x 9.4 in (240 mm) main gun supported by a 5 x 8.3 in (210 mm) secondary gun. Later improvements to its weapons suite also included torpedo tubes and small cannon mounts.

Under Prussian ownership, the ship was originally named "King William I" and was officially renamed "King William I" on 14 December 1867. Due to its strength and reputation, the warship soon became the flagship of the Prussian Navy. With the start of the Franco-Prussian War (1970-1871), the Konig Wilhelm was used for the first time in her sailing career.

However, the warship would not fight directly in a conflict because its engines were plagued by unreliability. During the postwar period, King William suffered considerable damage in a collision with the Iron Elector. Maintenance work on Wilhelmshaven was extended from 1878 to 1882.

Over the next few decades, King William held various roles, which made her the flagship and ceremonial platform of the fleet, and participated in training exercises. In 1895, she went into dry dock and transitioned to the role of an armored cruiser, modifying (and improving) her weapons.

That's when she lost her original sailboat mast and saw a pair of masts take its place. The crew has also grown to more than 1,100.

Konig Wilhelm re-entered the German Navy in January 1897, and she is now in reserve status in 1904. While in port, she served as a barracks ship from 1904 to 1907 and as a floating training platform during World War I (1914-1918).

While she survived the conflict, her days on the water were numbered, and she fell under the torch of the cripple in the massive global military crisis that followed. On January 4, 1921, her name was removed from the naval register, and her dismantled hull was quickly sold - marking more than 50 years of service in the Prussian and German navies.