![]() ![]() Posen carried a main battery of twelve 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45 guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. German firms were not ready to begin production of turbines on a large scale until 1910. This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department the latter stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself." This decision was based solely on cost: at the time, Parsons held a monopoly on steam turbines and required a 1 million gold mark royalty fee for every turbine engine. She had a cruising radius of 8,300 nautical miles (15,400 km 9,600 mi) at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h 14 mph). Her propulsion system was rated at 28,000 PS (27,617 ihp 20,594 kW ) and provided a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h 23 mph). Posen retained three-shafted triple expansion engines with twelve coal-fired water-tube boilers instead of more advanced turbine engines. The ship had a crew of 40 officers and 968 enlisted men. She displaced 18,873 t (18,575 long tons) with a standard load, and 20,535 t (20,211 long tons) fully laden. ![]() Over the next two years, the design was refined into a larger vessel with twelve of the guns, by which time Britain had launched the all-big-gun battleship HMS Dreadnought. German designers initially considered ships equipped with 21 cm (8.3 in) secondary guns, but erroneous reports in early 1904 that the British Lord Nelson -class battleships would be equipped with a secondary battery of 25.4 cm (10 in) guns prompted them to consider an even more powerful ship armed with an all-big-gun armament consisting of eight 28 cm (11 in) guns. Description Main article: Nassau-class battleship Line drawing of a Nassau -class battleship showing the disposition of the main battery Design work on the Nassau class began in late 1903 in the context of the Anglo-German naval arms race at the time, battleships of foreign navies had begun to carry increasingly heavy secondary batteries, including Italian and American ships with 20.3 cm (8 in) guns and British ships with 23.4 cm (9.2 in) guns, outclassing the previous German battleships of the Deutschland class with their 17 cm (6.7 in) secondaries. She was then sent to ship-breakers in the Netherlands and scrapped in 1922. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, she was ceded to the British as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. At the end of the war, Posen remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow. The ship was sent back to the Baltic in 1918 to support the White Finns in the Finnish Civil War. In the first of these, Posen supported a German naval assault in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga. ![]() The ship also conducted several deployments to the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In the confusion, the ship accidentally rammed the light cruiser SMS Elbing, which suffered serious damage and was scuttled later in the night. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where Posen was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. ![]() She saw extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. The ship served with her three sister ships for the majority of World War I. She was equipped with a main battery of twelve 28 cm (11 in) guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. The ship was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel on 11 June 1907, launched on 12 December 1908, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on. SMS Posen was one of four battleships in the Nassau class, the first dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy ( Kaiserliche Marine ). ![]()
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