SMS Oldenburg (1884)

	A 1902 lithograph of SMS Oldenburg
Class overview
Preceded by	Sachsen class
Succeeded by	None
History
German Empire
Name	SMS Oldenburg
Namesake	Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
Builder	A.G. Vulcan, Stettin
Laid down	1883
Launched	20 December 1884
Commissioned	8 April 1886
Decommissioned	1912
Fate	Broken up, 1919
General characteristics
Class and type	Armored corvette
Displacement	Design: 5,249 t (5,166 long tons; 5,786 short tons); Full load: 5,743 t (5,652 long tons; 6,331 short tons);
Length	79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
Beam	18 m (59 ft 1 in)
Draft	6.28 m (20 ft 7 in)
Installed power	8 × fire-tube boilers; 3,942 PS (3,888 ihp);
Propulsion	2 × double-expansion steam engines; 2 × screw propellers;
Speed	13.8 knots (25.6 km/h; 15.9 mph)
Range	1,770 nmi (3,280 km; 2,040 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement	34 officers; 355 enlisted men;
Armament	8 × 24 cm (9.4 in) L/30 guns; 4 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns; 2 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns; 4 × 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes;
Armor	Belt: 200 to 300 mm (7.9 to 11.8 in); Battery: 150 mm (5.9 in);

SMS Oldenburg was an armored warship of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). Laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1883, the ship was launched in December 1884 and commissioned into the Navy in April 1886. Oldenburg was intended to have been a fifth member of the Sachsen class of sortie corvettes, but budgetary limitations and dissatisfaction with the Sachsen class prompted a redesign that bore little resemblance to the earlier vessels. Oldenburg mounted her main battery of eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns amidships, six in a central casemate on the main deck and two directly above them on the broadside. She was the first German capital ship constructed entirely from German-made steel.

Oldenburg did not see significant service with the German Navy. She participated in fleet training maneuvers in the late-1880s and early 1890s, but she spent the majority of the 1890s in reserve. Her only major deployment came in 1897–1898 when she joined an international naval demonstration to protest the Greek annexation of Crete. In 1900, she was withdrawn from active duty and used as a harbor defense ship. From 1912 to 1919, she was used by the High Seas Fleet as a target ship; she was sold for scrapping in 1919 and broken up that year.

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