page_title: SMS Sachsen (1916)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Sachsen (1916) / Description
context_page_description: SMS Sachsen was the third of four Bayern-class battleships built, but never finished, for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the 1910s, sometimes considered to be part of a sub-class with her sister Württemberg. Like the other members of the class, she was to be armed with the same main battery of eight 38 cm guns in four gun turrets, but she differed from the other members of her class in her propulsion system. She exchanged the steam turbine on her center propeller shaft in favor of a diesel engine. She was laid down in April 1914 at the Germaniawerft shipyard, but the start of World War I in July slowed work on the ship; she was launched in November 1916, but as resources were diverted to more pressing projects, including U-boat construction, work stopped completely when the ship was about nine months from completion. Some components of her propulsion system were reused in several of the Type U 151 submarines. The Treaty of Versailles that ended the war in June 1919 specified that all warships under construction in Germany were to be destroyed, and Sachsen was accordingly sold for scrap in 1920 and dismantled the following year.
context_section_description: Sachsen was 181.8 m (596 ft 5 in) long at the waterline, and 182.4 m (598 ft 5 in) long overall. She had a beam of 30 m (98 ft 5 in) and a draft of between 9.3–9.4 m (30 ft 6 in–30 ft 10 in). Sachsen would have displaced 28,800 metric tons (28,300 long tons) at her designed displacement, which did not include a full load of supplies, fuel, and other operational necessities; at full load, she would have displaced up to 32,500 metric tons (32,000 long tons). Unlike her three sister ships, which were powered by three sets of Schichau steam turbines, Sachsen received only two sets of turbines on the outboard shafts, with steam provided by six coal-fired water-tube boilers and three oil-fired models. Her third shaft was powered by a MAN, six-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine which was rated at 12,000 metric horsepower (12,000 shp); combined with the turbines, her propulsion system produced 54,000 metric horsepower (53,000 shp). Designed speed was 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h; 25.9 mph). Her engines would have provided a cruising range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). Upon commissioning, she would have carried a crew of 42 officers and 1,129 enlisted men.
  Had she been completed, she would have been armed with eight 38 cm (15 in) SK L/45 guns. These would have been arranged in four twin-gun turrets: two superfiring turret pairs fore and aft of the superstructure. Her secondary armament was to have consisted of sixteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and four 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns. She would also have been fitted with five 60 cm (23.6 in) torpedo tubes submerged in her hull, one in the bow and two on each broadside. The ship had an armored belt that was 170–350 mm (6.7–13.8 in) thick and an armored deck that was 60–100 mm (2.4–3.9 in) thick. Her forward conning tower had 400 mm (15.7 in) sides, and the main battery turrets had 350 mm thick sides and 200 mm (7.9 in) thick roofs.
caption: Side view of the Bayern class showing the protection scheme