SMS V187 was a S-138-class large torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard at Stettin between 1910 and 1911 and launched on 11 January 1911.
V187 was still in service at the start of the First World War, but was sunk by British cruisers and destroyers at the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914.
Construction and design
The Imperial German Navy ordered 12 large torpedo boats (Große Torpedoboote) as part of the fiscal year 1910 shipbuilding programme, with one half-flotilla of six ships (V186–V191) ordered from AG Vulcan and the other six ships from Germaniawerft. The two groups of torpedo boats were of basically similar layout but differed slightly in detailed design, with a gradual evolution of design and increase in displacement with each year's orders.
V187 was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of . The ship displaced design and deep load. The V186 and G192 groups of torpedo boats had their forecastles cut back to allow their forward pair of torpedo tubes to fire directly ahead, but this made the ships very wet in high seas, and V187 was modified with the forecastle lengthened and the forward set of torpedo tubes moved aft of the forecastle break and the ship's bridge.
Three coal-fired and one oil-fired water-tube boiler fed steam at a pressure of to two sets of direct-drive steam turbines. The ship's machinery was rated at giving a design speed of , with members of the class reaching a speed of during sea trials. 136 to ns of coal and 67 tons of oil fuel were carried, giving an endurance of at , at or at .
The ship was armed with two 8.8 cm L/45 guns, one on the Forecastle and one aft. Four single 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes were fitted, with two forward, one between the ship's two funnels, and one aft of the funnels. The ship had a crew of 84 officers and men.
V187 was laid down at AG Vulcan's Stettin shipyard as Yard number 305 and was launched on 11 January 1911 and completed on 4 May 1911.
Service
On commissioning, V187 joined I Torpedo Flotilla as leader, and remained the leader of I Flotilla in 1914.
First World War
On 28 August 1914, the British Harwich Force, supported by light cruisers and battlecruisers of the Grand Fleet, carried out a raid towards Heligoland with the intention of destroying patrolling German torpedo boats. The German defensive patrols around Heligoland consisted of one flotilla (I Torpedo Flotilla) of 12 modern torpedo boats forming an outer patrol line about North and West of Heligoland, with an inner line of older torpedo boats of the 3rd Minesweeping Division at about . Four German light cruisers and another flotilla of torpedo boats (V Torpedo Boat Flotilla) was in the vicinity of Heligoland. V187, the leader of I Torpedo Boat Flotilla, formed part of the outer screen of torpedo boats. At about 06:00 on 28 August, , another member of the outer screen reported spotting the periscope of a submarine. As a result, V Flotilla was ordered out to hunt the hostile submarine. At 07:57 G194 was fired on by British warships, and was soon retreating towards Heligoland, pursued by four British destroyers. V Flotilla and the old torpedo boats of the 3rd Minesweeping Division also came under British fire, and were only saved by the intervention of the German cruisers and , with the torpedo boats , and T33 damaged.