SMS Ägir

SMS Ägir  was the second and final member of the Odin class of coastal defense ships (Küstenpanzerschiffe) built for the German Imperial Navy. She had one sister ship, SMS Odin. Ägir was named for the eponymous norse god, and was built by the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig shipyard between 1893 and 1896. She was armed with a main battery of three 24 cm guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1901–1903. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. Ägir was demobilized in 1915 and used as a tender thereafter. After the war, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship and served in this capacity until December 1929, when she was wrecked on the island of Gotland.

Design
Ägir was 79 m long overall and had a beam of 15.2 m and a maximum draft of 5.61 m. She displaced 3754 LT at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. Steam for the engines was provided by eight coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of 15.1 kn. She carried 370 MT of coal, which gave her a range of approximately 1490 nmi at 10 kn. Because she had twice the number of electrical generators as her sister, Ägir was nicknamed "Elektrische Anna" (Electic Anna). The ship had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with three 24 cm K L/35 guns mounted in three single gun turrets. Two were placed side by side forward, and the third was located aft of the main superstructure. They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition. The ship was also equipped with ten 8.8 cm SK L/30 guns in single mounts. Ägir also carried three 45 cm torpedo tubes, two in swivel mounts on the deck amidships and one in the bow, submerged below the waterline. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was 240 mm thick amidships, and an armored deck that was 70 mm thick. The conning tower had 120 mm thick sides.

Service history
Ägir was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel in 1892. She was launched on 3 April 1895 and completed on 15 January 1896, after which she underwent a somewhat lengthy period of sea trials. The ship was commissioned into the German fleet on 15 October 1896, where she served on active duty for the entirety of her peacetime career. During the 1900 summer maneuvers, Ägir served in the simulated hostile squadron, alongside SMS Heimdall, Hildebrand, and SMS Siegfried. The maneuvers lasted from 15 August to 15 September.

In 1901, Ägir was taken in hand at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig for an extensive reconstruction. Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Marine type boilers and her length was increased to 86.15 m. This increased her displacement to 4376 MT at full load. The lengthened hull, which improved her hydrodynamic shape, and the improved boilers increased her speed by a full knot, to 15.5 kn. Her coal storage was increased to 580 MT, which allowed her to steam for an additional 800 nmi. The modernization work was completed by 1903, at which point she returned to active service.

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Ägir was assigned to the VI Battle Squadron, along with her sister SMS Odin and the six s. The Squadron was disbanded on 31 August 1915 to free up the ships' crews for more important tasks. Ägir was thereafter used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven through to the end of the war. She was stricken from the naval register on 17 June 1919 and sold. In 1922, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Rüstringen. She was operated by A. Bernstein Co., out of Hamburg. She continued in this role until she was wrecked on the island of Gotland off the Karlsö lighthouse on 8 December 1929. Her bow ornament is preserved at the Laboe Naval Memorial.