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Career
Class and type:	Unique battlecruiser
Builder:	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid down:	February 4, 1911
Launched:	March 30, 1912
Commissioned:	May 22, 1913
Fate:	Scuttled at Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919 Salvaged in 1928, scrapped
General Characteristics
Displacement:	24,594 tons normal 28,100 tons loaded
Length:	657 ft 11 in(200.5 m)
Beam:	93 ft 6 in(28.5 m)
Draft:	26 ft 11 in(30.3 m)
Propulsion:	4 screws, Parsons turbines, 63,000 shp
Speed:	26.5 knots
Range:	4,700 nm at 14 knots
Complement:	1,068
Armament:	10 × 11.2 in (284 mm) / 50 caliber guns (5 × 2) 12 × 5.9 in (150 mm) guns 12 × 3.45 in (88 mm) guns
Motto:	Always forward

SMS Seydlitz was a 25,000 ton battlecruiser of the Imperial German Navy, built at Hamburg, Germany, and commissioned in May 1913. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great

The Seydlitz was a unique vessel, being a modified version of the previous Moltke class Battlecruisers. As the Moltke was herself basically an enlarged version of Germany's first Battlecruiser, Von der Tann, the Seydlitz can be considered the ultimate evolution of Germany's first generation of Battlecruisers.

When she was proposed the German Design board seriously considered a completely new design of ship armed with 12" guns, but the Treasury would not authorise an increase in cost over the previous Moltke class ships. For some time the plan was to build a third sister to the Moltke and Goeben, but Admiral Tirpitz was able to negotiate a discount on Armour plate from Krupps which freed up sufficient funds to make some material improvements to the design. The Principle difference between the Seydlitz and her predecessors was her raised forecastle, giving her greater freeboard at the bow. The intent was to improve the seakeeping qualities of the vessel as the Moltke Class had proved notoriously "wet" in even relatively mild swell. She was also about a knot faster, had slightly thicker armour and a new design of Turret.

At the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915), 24 January 1915, in World War I SMS Seydlitz was the flagship of Admiral Franz von Hipper. She was hit by a 13.5 inch shell from HMS Lion which penetrated the working chamber of her after turret. The resulting explosion knocked out the rear turret and, due to an open door to the adjacent turret, knocked out that one as well, with the loss of the 160 men of the two turrets’ crews. Only the prompt action of her executive officer in flooding the magazines saved Seydlitz from a magazine explosion that would have destroyed the ship. Supposedly the sailor Wilhelm Heidkamp saved the ship, when he desparetely opened the glowing valves although he burnt his hands and his lungs. He never recovered from his severe injuries and died a few years later. The Kriegsmarine named a destroyer after him. At the Battle of Jutland, a similar situation befell Lion.

Seydlitz was heavily damaged in the battle of Jutland. This picture was taken after she had been lightened so that she be refloated after being beached in the Jade Estuary.

At the Battle of Jutland in 1916 she fought third in line in Hipper's battlecruiser squadron. Her gunfire led to the explosion of HMS Queen Mary. Seydlitz was heavily damaged herself, being hit by twenty-one heavy shells and one torpedo and suffering 98 men killed and 55 injured. She shipped over 5,000 tons of water, reducing her freeboard to almost nothing, but made it back to the Jade Estuary, where she was deliberately beached.

Thereafter, the Seydlitz was extensively lightened by removing as much equipment from her as possible, including her guns, and refloated so that she could limp into port. She was immediately taken in hand for repairs - a process that took five months to complete - and was back in service with the High Seas Fleet in November, 1916. She would serve as Hipper's flagship for most of the rest of the war.

Seydlitz survived more damage that any other German capital ship during WWI, a remarkable testament to the incredibly strong basic design of German Battlecruisers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was always considered a happy ship and was one of the most popular ships of the High Seas Fleet. Her motto was "Always Forward."

After the armistice she was interned at Scapa Flow where she was scuttled by her crew with the rest of the High Seas Fleet on 21 June 1919. She was salvaged in 1928 and scrapped.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

SMS Seydlitz

• Photos of the Seydlitz

Accounts of the battle of Jutland:

• by Moritz von Egidy, captain of SMS Seydlitz
• by Richard Foerster, gunnery officer on the Seydlitz
• Maritimequest SMS Seydlitz Photo Gallery