Built as a Schlachtkreuzer (battleship) under yard No 209 by Blohm & Voss at Hamburg for the German Imperial Navy.
04 February 1911 laid down.
30 March 1913 launched as the SMS SEYDLITZ.
Displacement 25,000 standard, 28,550 ton full load, dim. 200.6 x 28.50 x 9.28m. (draught).
Powered by two Parsons steam turbines, manufactured by Blohm & Voss, 67,000 shp, three shafts, speed 26.5 knots.
Range 4,200 miles by a speed of 10 knots. 27 Schulz-Thornycroft boilers supplied steam.
Armament 10 – 11 inch, 12 – 6 inch, 12 – 24pdrs. 4 – 14 pdrs. AA, four 20 inch torpedo tubes, one bow, two broadside and 1 stern.
When built she was fitted out with anti-torpedo nets, removed in 1917.
Crew 1068.
22 May 1913 commissioned. Building cost 44.6 million Goldmark.
1914 Part of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron of the German Navy.
During World War I she took part in most battlecruisers operations.
28 August 1914 she took part in the unsuccessful search for the British battlecruisers in the German Bight.
03 November 1914 took part in “Operation J1”, the coastal bombardment of Yarmouth U.K.
16 December 1914 took part in “Operation J2”, the coastal bombardment of Hartlepool U.K.
She was a unit of Rear Admiral Hipper battle cruisers squadron when he received orders to make a reconnaissance sweep to the Doggersbank on 23 January 1915. The squadron sailed from Willemshaven with the SEYDLITZ as flagship the same day.
The British fleet already informed by the Intelligence Services that the German squadron was at sea sailed out and were on an intercepting course.
24 January at around 07.00 a.m. the English fleet was sighted, and Hipper got aware of his critical position 170 miles from Helgoland and he tried to outrun the English fleet and ordered his ships to return to base.
Salvo after salvo was fired from both fleets, and HMS LION salvo’s found the SEYDLITZ from a range of some 17,500 yards, a 13.5 inch shell from the LION exploded outside the rear turret making a small hole in the working chamber of the turret of the SEYDLITZ. Red-hot pieces of steel ignited a cartridge, the flash setting fire to 13,000 pounds of cordite, killing 190 men. Two turrets were put out of action and the SEYDLITZ was on fire. By flooding both magazines it was avoided that the stored ammunition exploded. The SEYDLITZ made it back to Wilhelmshaven with 260 men wounded and 190 killed.
After repair was she a unit of the German fleet during the Battle of Jutland. The German fleet sailed out on 31 May 1916 under command of Admiral R. Scheer, a fleet totalling 99 ships and 36,000 officers and men. The German fleet would meet the British fleet under command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe totalling 146 ships. At around 14.00 that day the British squadron under command of Rear Admiral Hood was sighted and at 15.45 fire was opened and shortly thereafter the HMS INDEFATIGABLE blew up, 20 minutes later HMS QUEEN MARY was hit by the SEYDLITZ and blew up. The first time the SEYDLITZ was hit by a 12 inch shell which struck the number six inch casemate on the starboard side killing everybody inside. Sometime later turret C was out of action and smoke and gas poured out the voices pipes. Twenty men were killed or severely burnt. Then she was hit by a torpedo, her torpedo bulkhead held but she started leaking and the ship received hit after hit from the British ships.
Around 20.00 the SEYDLITZ came under heavy fire and the vessel got much damage. The bow settled and water was streaming over the forecastle. The next morning when she reached Horns Reef light vessel the entire forecastle was riddled like a sieve and water entered room after room. The fight to save the vessel began. She was now so down by the head that seawater got into the forward casemates.
On the first of June ships arrived with salvage pumps when the SEYDLITZ was off Helgoland at that time she had a list of 8 degree and very little stability, she could only make a speed of two to three knots, sometimes bow first or stern first which she did part of the voyage. The weather worsened and the seas were breaking over her waist, a tugboat laid an oil-slick until the wind abated.
02 June she anchored near Jade lightship to wait for the tide, she had a draught forward of 47½ ft. Early the next morning she arrived in Wilhelmshaven. During the battle she was hit by 21 heavy shells and one torpedo, lost 98 men and had 55 men injured. Four heavy guns and two medium guns were put out of action.
Repaired at Wilhelmshaven.
05 November 1916 made an unsuccessful raid in the North Sea.
23 April 1918 made an unsuccessful raid in the northern North Sea.
24 November 1918 interned at Scape Flow.
21 June 1919 scuttled by own crew.
02 November 1928 was the wreck raised.
1930 Scrapped at Rosyth.
The stamp depict the SEYDLITZ in the background, on the foreground of the stamp is depict a Protest March of the German Imperial sailors who protested against the bad living standards on board of the vessels of the German fleet.
East Germany 1967 20pf sgE1029, scott?
Central African Republic 2015 1200f sg?
Source: Sea Battles of the 20th Century by George Bruce. Warships and Sea Battles of World War I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Seydlitz