SMS was the lead ship of her class of coastal defense ships () built for the Imperial German Navy. She had one sister ship, . , named for the eponymous Norse god, was built by the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig between 1893 and 1896, and was armed with a main battery of three guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1901–1903. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. was demobilized in 1915 and used as a tender thereafter. After the war, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship and served in this capacity until 1935, when she was broken up for scrap.
Design
In the late 1880s, the German grappled with the problem of what type of capital ship to build in the face of limited naval budgets (owing to parliamentary objections to naval spending and the cost of dredging the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal). General Leo von Caprivi, the new (Chief of the Admiralty), was able to secure approval from the (Imperial Diet) for ten small coastal defense ships, the first six of which became the , which carried three main battery guns in individual barbette mounts. Proposals for the last four included redesigning the vessels to add another main battery gun in two-gun turrets came to nothing owing to the cost of other naval programs—most notably the s. The two ships were ultimately built to a modified version of the design that incorporated improvements to the armor layout and other minor changes.
was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced normally and up to at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines. Steam for the engines was provided by four coal-fired boilers that were vented through a single funnel. The ship's propulsion system were rated for a top speed of from , though she failed to reach either figure in service, making just during her initial speed tests. She carried of coal, which gave her a range of approximately at . had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men.
The ship was armed with three K L/35 guns mounted in three single-gun barbettes fitted with gun shields. Two were placed side by side forward, and the third was located aft of the main superstructure. They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition. The ship was also equipped with a secondary battery of ten SK L/30 guns in single mounts spaced along the center part of the vessel, five guns per broadside. also carried three torpedo tubes, two in swivel mounts on the deck amidships and one in the bow, submerged below the waterline. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was thick in the central citadel, and an armored deck that was thick. The conning tower had thick sides.
Modifications
was heavily rebuilt in 1901–1903. Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Marine type boilers and her length was increased to . This increased her displacement to at full load. The lengthened hull, which improved her hydrodynamic shape, and the improved boilers increased her speed by a full knot, to . Her coal storage was increased to , which allowed her to steam for an additional . The modernization work was completed by 1903, at which point she returned to active service.
Service history
Peacetime career
was laid down at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig on 15 March 1893, launched on 3 November 1894, and the shipyard director, (Captain at Sea) Graf von Haugwitz, christened the ship after the Norse deity Odin at the ceremony. The ship was completed on 7 July 1896, after which sea trials commenced. She was commissioned into the German fleet on 22 September 1896, under the command of (KK—Corvette Captain) Johannes Wallmann, and she completed acceptance trials two days later. Final modifications were made over the course of the following month, along with further tests, and on 14 October she was assigned to the Reserve Division of the Baltic Sea, based in Kiel.