Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 8, 2015

SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm ("His Majesty's Ship Elector Friedrich Wilhelm") was one of the first ocean-going battleships of the Imperial German Navy, the fourth pre-dreadnought of the Brandenburg-class battleship. She was laid down in 1890 in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in 1891, and completed in 1893 at a cost of 11.23 million Marks. She served as the flagship of the Imperial fleet from her commissioning until 1900, seeing limited active duty during the relatively peaceful late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her career focused on training exercises and goodwill visits to foreign ports. She saw only one major overseas deployment, to China in 1900 and 1901, during the Boxer Rebellion. The ship underwent a major modernization in 1904 and 1905. In 1910, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm was sold to the Ottoman Empire and renamed Barbaros Hayreddin. She saw heavy service during the Balkan Wars, primarily providing artillery support to ground forces in Thrace. In a state of severe disrepair, the old battleship was partially disarmed after the Ottoman Empire joined World War I's Central Powers. On 8 August 1915 the ship was torpedoed and sunk off the Dardanelles with heavy loss of life.