Construction – 1908 was ordered under the provisional name , and was built at the
Blohm & Voss shipyard in
Hamburg under construction number 167. Her
keel was
laid down on 25 April 1903 and she was
launched on 14 May 1904. (Colonel General)
Wilhelm von Hahnke gave a speech at the launching ceremony, where Josephine Yorck von Wartenburg christened after
Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian general during the
Napoleonic Wars.
Fitting-out work was completed by late 1905, when the ship began builder's trials. After a shipyard crew transferred the vessel to
Kiel, she was
commissioned into the fleet on 21 November. initially served with the fleet in
I Scouting Group, which she formally joined on 27 March 1906. On 2 April, she replaced the armored cruiser as the group flagship, under the command of (
VAdm—Vice Admiral)
Gustav Schmidt. Over the next several years, took part in the peacetime routine of training exercises with the fleet reconnaissance forces and with the entire (Home Fleet), including major fleet exercises every autumn in late August and early September. On 29 September, (
KAdm—Rear Admiral)
Hugo von Pohl replaced Schmidt as the group commander. After 1907's autumn maneuvers, went into drydock for an extensive overhaul from 11 September to 28 October. While she was out of service, Pohl was replaced by
KAdm August von Heeringen, who raised his flag aboard upon her return from the shipyard. The ship went on a major cruise into the
Atlantic Ocean from 7 to 28 February 1908 with the other ships of the scouting group. During the cruise, the ships conducted various tactical exercises and experimented with using their
wireless telegraphy equipment at long distances. They stopped in
Vigo, Spain, to replenish their coal for the voyage home. On 1 May, the new armored cruiser joined I Scouting Group, replacing as the group flagship. Another Atlantic cruise followed in July and August; this time, the cruise was made in company with the battleship squadrons of what had been by then renamed the High Seas Fleet.
Prince Heinrich, then the fleet commander, had pressed for such a cruise the previous year, arguing that it would prepare the fleet for overseas operations and would break up the monotony of training in German waters, though tensions with Britain over the developing
Anglo-German naval arms race were high. The fleet departed Kiel on 17 July, passed through the
Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued to the Atlantic. stopped in
Funchal in
Madeira and
A Coruña, Spain during the cruise. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August. The autumn maneuvers followed from 27 August to 12 September. won the Kaiser's (shooting prize) for excellent shooting among armored cruisers for the 1907–1908 training year. In October, (
KzS—Captain at Sea)
Arthur Tapken took command of the ship; he served as the ship's commander until September 1909.
1909–1913 |alt=A large ship steams at high speed through choppy seas, creating a large white wave at the bow In February 1909, I Scouting Group went on another training cruise in the Atlantic; again stopped in Vigo from 17 to 23 February. After the ships' return to Germany, was detached to the
East Asia Squadron on 11 March, vacating the flagship role, which again filled. Heeringen and the command staff returned to the ship the same day. The cruisers joined the High Seas Fleet for another Atlantic cruise in July and August, and visited
Vilagarcía de Arousa from 18 to 26 July. On the way back to Germany, the fleet stopped in
Spithead, England, where it was received by the
Royal Navy. By early 1910, the new armored cruiser was ready for service with the fleet, and so now-
VAdm Heeringen left on 25 April and transferred to the new vessel two days later. thereafter became the flagship of
KAdm Reinhard Koch, the deputy commander of the group. Already on 16 May, Koch was replaced by
KAdm Gustav Bachmann, who was in turn replaced by
KAdm Maximilian von Spee on 15 September when Bachmann succeeded Heeringen as the group commander. won the for the 1909–1910 year.
KzS Ludwig von Reuter served as the ship's commander from September 1910. While in a shipyard for maintenance on 31 March 1911, a
benzene explosion in the ship's aft-most
boiler room killed one man and injured several, preventing from taking part in unit maneuvers. On 1 October,
KzS and (Commodore)
Franz von Hipper replaced Spee, after which the ship joined a cruise to Norway and Sweden in November. She visited
Uddevalla, Sweden, from 3 to 6 November during the cruise. did not take part in the unit maneuvers conducted in February 1912. In March, and four
light cruisers filled I Scouting Group's role during fleet exercises, and during the maneuvers now-
VAdm Bachmann came aboard to direct their participation. In September, (Frigate Captain)
Max Köthner replaced Reuter as the ship's captain, though he served in the role only briefly before departing in November. The ship suffered an accident on 2 November when one of her
pinnaces detonated a
naval mine, killing two men and injuring two more. was involved in another serious accident on 4 March 1913 during training exercises off
Helgoland. The torpedo boat attempted to pass in front of the ship but failed to clear her in time; s bow tore a hole into
S178 that flooded her engine and boiler rooms.
S178 sank within a few minutes of the accident and 69 men were killed. , the battleship , and the torpedo boat were only able to pull fifteen men from the sea. was able to continue with the maneuvers, as she had been only slightly damaged in the accident. thereafter steamed to Kiel, where on 21 May she was decommissioned, the last armored cruiser to serve with I Scouting Group. She then underwent an overhaul and was placed in
reserve. Most of her crew transferred to the newly completed battlecruiser .
World War I Following the outbreak of
World War I in July 1914, was
mobilized for active service; she was recommissioned on 12 August under the command of
KzS Waldemar Pieper. Initially assigned to
IV Scouting Group, on 25 August she was transferred to
III Scouting Group, under the command of
KAdm Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz. Beginning on 20 September, she was tasked with guarding the
German Bight. The ships of III Scouting Group transferred temporarily to the
Baltic Sea two days later for a sortie into the central Baltic, as far north as
Östergarn on the Swedish island of
Gotland, from 22 to 29 September. They then returned to the North Sea and rejoined the High Seas Fleet. On 3 November, participated in the first offensive operation of the war conducted by the German fleet. I Scouting Group, by now commanded by
RAdm Hipper, was to
bombard Yarmouth on the British coast while the bulk of the High Seas Fleet sailed behind, providing distant support. and the rest of III Scouting Group provided the reconnaissance screen for the main fleet, which would intervene only in the event that the raid provoked a British counterattack. Hipper's ships inflicted little damage and
minelayers laid minefields off the coast, which later sank the British
submarine . Upon returning to
Wilhelmshaven late that day, the German ships encountered heavy fog that prevented them from safely navigating the defensive minefields that had been laid outside the port. Instead, they anchored in the
Schillig roadstead. Pieper, concerned about
paratyphus-contaminated water, believed the fog to have cleared sufficiently to allow the vessel to return to port, so he ordered the ship to get underway in the early hours of 4 November. The
pilot who had come aboard to guide the ship into port refused to take responsibility for maneuvering the ship owing to the great danger of trying to pass through the minefields under the foggy conditions. At 04:10, struck a mine and began to turn to exit the minefield, striking a second mine shortly thereafter. She quickly sank with heavy loss of life, though sources disagree on the number of fatalities. The naval historian V. E. Tarrant states that 127 out of a crew of 629 were rescued;
Erich Gröner contends that there were only 336 deaths. The naval historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz concur with Gröner on the number of fatalities and add that 381 men, including Pieper, were rescued by the
coastal defense ship . For his reckless handling of the ship, Pieper was tried in a
court-martial, convicted, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment for negligence, disobedience of orders, and homicide through negligence. Pieper was later released and sent to the
Ottoman Empire to help reorganize Ottoman defenses during the
Dardanelles campaign. The wreck, located between
Horumersiel and
Hooksiel, was initially marked to allow vessels to pass safely. Beginning in 1926, the wreck was partially scrapped to reduce the navigational hazard to deeper-draft vessels. More work was done in 1936–1937 for the same reason. During a series of construction programs to expand the entrance to the
Jade Bight after
World War II, the ship's turrets were removed in 1969 and the remaining parts of the hull were demolished in 1983 to further clear the sea floor. == Notes ==