SMS V1

SMS V1 was a V1-class torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy. The ship was built by AG Vulcan, completing in 1912. She served in the First World War with the German High Seas Fleet, taking part in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight in 1914 and the Battle of Jutland in 1916. She was retained by the post-war German Navy and was stricken in 1929 and scrapped.

Construction and design
In 1911, the Imperial German Navy placed orders for a flotilla of 12 torpedo boats as part of its shipbuilding programme for that year, with one half flotilla of six ordered from AG Vulcan, and six from Germaniawerft. The 1911 torpedo boats were smaller than those ordered in recent years in order to be more manoeuvrable and so work better with the fleet, which resulted in the numbering series for torpedo boats being restarted. The reduction in size resulted in the ships' seaworthiness being adversely affected.

V1 was launched from Vulcan's Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin in Poland) shipyard on 11 September 1911 and commissioned on 12 January 1912.

The ship was 71.1 m long overall and 70.2 m at the waterline, with a beam of 7.6 m and a draught of 3.11 m. Displacement was 569 t normal and 697 t deep load. Three coal-fired and one oil-fired water-tube boilers fed steam to two direct-drive steam turbines rated at 17000 PS, giving a design speed of 32 kn. 107 t of coal and 78 t of oil were carried, giving a range of 1190 nmi at 17 kn or 490 nmi at 29 kn.

Armament consisted of two 8.8 cm SK L/30 naval guns in single mounts fore and aft, together with four 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes with one reload torpedo carried. Up to 18 mines could be carried. In 1916 the L/30 guns were replaced by more powerful 8.8 cm SK L/45 guns. In 1921 she was rearmed with two 10.5 cm SK L/45 naval guns and two 50 cm torpedo tubes, and was fitted with new boilers, while her forecastle was extended rearwards, eliminating the exposed well-deck forward of the ship's bridge. The ship had a crew of 74 officers and other ranks.

Service
In May 1913 V1 was the leader of the 9th Half-Flotilla, 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla. On 28 August 1914, a British force of destroyers and cruisers supported by battlecruisers made a sortie into the Heligoland Bight in order to ambush German torpedo boats on patrol, which caused the Battle of Heligoland Bight. The 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, including V1, were sent out from Heligoland to investigate sightings of British submarines (which were deployed as bait to draw out German ships), and ran into several British destroyers. The Flotilla then turned away to try and escape the trap, but V1 and the torpedo boat SMS S13 (1911) could not make full speed and lagged behind the rest of the flotilla. V1 was hit twice by British shells, killing 1 and wounding two, before the arrival of the German cruiser SMS Stettin allowed the 5th Flotilla to escape. In total, however, three German light cruisers (SMS Ariadne, SMS Cöln (1909) and SMS Mainz) and one torpedo boat of the German outer screen (SMS V187) had been sunk.

On 23 January 1915, a German force of Battlecruisers and light cruisers, escorted by torpedo boats, and commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper, made a sortie to attack British fishing boats on the Dogger Bank. V1, part of the 9th Torpedo Boat Half-Flotilla of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, formed part of the escort for Hipper's force. British Naval Intelligence was warned of the raid by radio messages decoded by Room 40, and sent out the Battlecruiser Force from Rosyth, commanded by Admiral Beatty aboard HMS Lion (1910) and the Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers, to intercept the German force. The British and German Forces met on the morning of 24 January in the Battle of Dogger Bank. On sighting the British, Hipper ordered his ships to head south-east to escape the British, who set off in pursuit. The armoured cruiser SMS Blücher was disabled by British shells and was sunk, but the rest of the German force escaped, with the German battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz and the British battlecruiser HMS Lion (1910) badly damaged.

On 8 September 1915, V1 was involved in a collision with the torpedo boat SMS G12 which sank after a torpedo exploded. 35 of V1's crew were killed with a further 14 wounded, while 47 were killed aboard G12. At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916, V1 was part of the 9th Half-Flotilla, 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, operating in support of the main German battle fleet. During the night, V1 together with SMS V3 and SMS G11 was fired on by a German cruiser, but escaped unharmed.

V1 survived the war, and was one of the limited number of destroyers that the Reichsmarine was allowed to retain under the Treaty of Versailles. By 1923, V1 was attached to the North Sea station. Between 1926 and 1929, the Reichsmarine took delivery of twelve torpedo boats of the Type 23 and Type 24 classes, replacing those old destroyers and torpedo boats in poorest condition. She was stricken on 27 March 1929 and was broken up at Wilhelmshaven.