The SMS Vulkan was one of the two docking ships of the imperial navy, which were developed with the development and use of the first submarines to recover sunken or damaged submarines, record and repair.
Launching and design:
In 1906, the first submarine U1 was commissioned in the imperial navy. At the same time, the development of a type of ship was started, which was able to lift sunken submarines, to repair damaged or towed in a harbor.
The first docking vessel SMS Vulkan was designed and built due to the dimensions and weight of the first German submarine. After a short time and the rapid development in the submarine sector, the volcano proved in the long run no longer suitable to accommodate the larger and heavier submarines. It was therefore started with the development of another dock ship, which met the new requirements.
The Vulkan, like the later Cyclop catamaran, was built, but the crane's lifting power was only 500 tons and could lift under the maximum load of 30 meters per hour. For this purpose, a turbo-electric drive was used for the first time, which was driven by the steam of the four flour horn boiler.
The launch of the SMS Vulkan took place on 28 September 1907, the commissioning on 28 February 1908.
The hull of the SMS Vulkan in the construction phase 1907
Turbo electric propulsion of submarine lifting ship SMS Vulkan
SMS Vulkan
History of SMS Vulkan:
The SMS Vulkan had its first and only mission on 17 January 1911 when the submarine SM U3 had sunk in Kiel harbor. The submarine was previously lifted by the floating crane Langer Heinrich something, so that most of the crew could save, for the 3 men in the tower of the submarine, however, only the SMS Vulkan had to be requested.
When they arrived at the scene of the accident, however, the men were already dead.
As the technical development of the German submarines made very fast progress, the boats were also bigger and heavier and the SMS Vulkan could not be used for the newer submarines. Accordingly, the ship had no use in the First World War.
SMS Vulkan
SMS Vulkan from 1908
Whereabouts:
After the capitulation of the German Empire, Great Britain demanded not only the SMS Cyclop but also the docking vessel SMS Vulkan.
During the transfer to Harwich, however, the ship broke off the leash and sank on April 6, 1919 in the North Sea.
Ship data:
| Name: |
SMS Vulkan |
| Country: |
German Empire |
| Ship Type: |
Submarine ship lifting |
| Class: |
Single ship |
| Boatyard: |
Howaldtswerke, Kiel |
| Building-costs: |
Ca. 3.000.000 Mark |
| Launched: |
September 28th, 1907 |
| Commissioning: |
February 28th, 1908 |
| Whereabouts: |
Sunk on April 6th, 1919 on the crossing to Great Britain |
| Length: |
85,3 meters |
| Width: |
16,5 meters |
| Draft: |
Max. 3,85 meters |
| Displacement: |
Max. 1.595 Tons |
| Crew: |
105 Men |
| Drive: |
unknown |
| Power: |
1.200 PSe |
| Maximum speed: |
12 kn |
| Armament: |
none |
| Armor: |
none |
You can find the right literature here:
German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard)
German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard) Paperback – February 23, 2010
Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an enlightening history of the Deutschland to Osfriesland classes. Detailing the last of the pre-dreadnaught battleship classes, this book goes on to explain the revolutionary developments that took place within the German Imperial Navy as they readied themselves for war. This included creating vessels with vast increases in size and armament. This account of design and technology is supplemented by individual ship histories detailing combat experience complete with first-hand accounts. The specially commissioned artwork also brings this history to life with recreations of the battleship Pommern fighting at Jutland and ships of the Osfriesland class destroying HMS Black Prince in a dramatic night-time engagement.
The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces
The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces Hardcover – December 28, 2016
The Imperial German Navy of WWI is a series of books (Warships, Campaigns, & Uniforms) that provide a broad view of the Kaiser's naval forces through the extensive use of photographs. Every effort has been made to cover all significant areas during the war period. In addition to the primary use of photographs, technical information is provided for each warship along with its corresponding service history; with a special emphasis being placed on those warships that participated in the Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland). Countless sources have been used to establish individual case studies for each warship; multiple photos of each warship are provided. The entire series itself is unprecedented in its coverage of the Kaiser's navy.
German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations
German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations Hardcover – November 4, 2014
This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally "armored cruiser," the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.
The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918
The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918 Hardcover – March 15, 2016
The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their Second Reich predecessors. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period. The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules, and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line drawings and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships. A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-World War II books of Koop & Schmolke, Großmer's on the construction program of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on World War I projects, and Schenk & Nottelmann's papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in standard English sources.
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