S.M.S. Baden (1915)

S.M.S. Baden (1915)
Builder:	Schichau-Werke, Danzig
Laid down:	Dec, 1913
Launched:	30 Oct, 1915
Commissioned:	14 Mar, 1917
Target:	Aug, 1921

S.M.S. Baden was one of two Bayern class battleships completed for the Imperial German Navy during the Great War.

A ship's bell from Baden is in the possession of the Imperial War Museum, Catalogue Number MAR 6.

British Evaluations

Commander (Retired) Windham M. Phipps-Hornby wrote to Arthur Marder in 1969, commenting on a draft of the fifth volume of From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow:

Here, with the utmost respect, I categorically disagree with the D.N.C. and the other Admiralty experts. Having lived onboard the Baden for weeks, employed on salving her, I had got to know her internal arrangements as well as those of my own ship, the Ramillies. And my considered opinion - which I know coincided with that of others engaged on the same job - was that, considered as a fighting machine, anyhow on balance the Baden was markedly in advance of any comparable ship of the Royal Navy. Possibly the British Constructors and others, understandably if unconsciously, were loath to concede that the young German Navy had much to teach them.

Of course, the Germans either kept to a minimum, or else altogether dispensed with, anything that did not conduce directly towards fighting capability. Thus the much inferior accommodation in the German ships has already been noted. Again: in the British capital ships the Engineers had at disposal a quite extensive workshop, equipped with a variety of machine tools. Nothing comparable was found in the Baden. Such small workshops as there were equipped only with benches and vices. I do not recollect to have seen a machine tool in the ship.

What did impress me was the range of spares the Baden seemed to carry. Did any at any rate at all important component fail, a replacement for it was to hand.

Marder decided to incorporate Phipps Hornby's opinion into his text, whilst at the same time stripping away much of Phipps Hornby's qualification:

The D.N.C. and other Admiralty experts, having made a careful examination of the raised Baden, concluded (1921) that in the principal features of design they had little to learn from their late enemy. This was going a mite too far. Commander W. M. Phipps Hornby, who lived on board the Baden for weeks, employed on salving her, got to know her internal arrangements as well as those of his own ship, the Ramillies. It is his 'considered opinion-which I know coincided with that of others engaged on the same job-that, considered as a fighting machine, anyhow on balance the Baden was markedly in advance of any comparable ship of the Royal Navy.' Perhaps, as he suggests, the D.N.C. and others unconsciously were loath to concede that the young German Navy had much to teach them. Commander Phipps Hornby's memorandum for the author, June 1969.

How accurate was Phipps Hornby's memory? Not very, it seems. He claimed that there was no "comparable" workshop in Baden, yet Stanley V. Goodall told the Institution of Naval Architects in 1921 that the Baden had in the way of:

Workshops.—An engineer's workshop is provided on the main deck with the following equipment: two lathes, planing machine, drilling machine, two grindstones, two benches and two vices. The machine tools are driven by independent electric motors.
A blacksmith's shop is fitted on the main deck containing two forges, two anvils, a bench and vice.
An electrician's workshop is provided on the main deck equipped with an electrically driven drilling machine, a bench, and vices.
An armourer's workshop is fitted on the upper deck amidships provided with a lathe and drilling machines both motor driven, vices and a bench.
A torpedo workshop is fitted on the main deck.

This illustrates the danger any historian faces in relying on recollections. That Phipps Hornby, after his "weeks" on board, couldn't remember a single machine tool in the three workshops so equipped is remarkable. But not surprising. Presumably Marder realised that claim was faulty and therefore omitted it, yet chose to believe Phipps Hornby's more sensational comparison.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Kapitän zur See Viktor Harder, 19 October, 1916 – 5 August, 1918
• Kapitän zur See Heinrich Retzmann, 24 August, 1918 – 30 November, 1918
• Korvettankapitän Otto Zirzow, 1 December, 1918 – 21 June, 1919

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Goodall, S. V. (1921). "The Ex-German Battleship Baden". Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects. Volume LXIII. pp. 13-32. London.
• Grießmer, Axel (1999). Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine 1906-1918: Konstructionen zwischen Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 3-7637-5985-9.
• Marder, Arthur J. (1970). From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904-1919: Victory and Aftermath, January 1918–June 1919. Volume V. London: Oxford University Press.