[SMS] Scharnhorst Armored Cruiser

Laid down: 22 March 1905
Launched: 23 March 1906
Commissioned: 24 October 1907
Displacement: 12,985 t (12,780 long tons) full load
Length: 144.60 m
Beam: 21.60 m
Draft: 8.37 m
Propulsion:3 × triple-expansion steam engines
3 × screw propellers
Speed:22.7 knots (42 km/h)
Armament:
8 × 21 cm (8.3 in) (2 × 2, 4 × 1)
6 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/40 (6 × 1)
18 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 (18 × 1)
4 × 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:
Belt: 150 mm (5.9 in)
Turrets: 180 mm (7.1 in)
Deck: 35 to 60 mm (1.4 to 2.4 in)

Scharnhorst served briefly with the High Seas Fleet in Germany in 1908, though most of this time was spent conducting sea trials. She was assigned to the East Asia Squadron based in Qingdao, China, in 1909. After arriving, she replaced the cruiser Fürst Bismarck as the squadron flagship, a position she would hold for the rest of her career. Over the next five years, she went on several tours of various Asian ports to show the flag for Germany. She frequently carried the squadron commanders to meet Asian heads of state and was present in Japan for the coronation of the Taisho Emperor in 1912.

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, accompanied by three light cruisers and several colliers, sailed across the Pacific Ocean to the southern coast of South America. On 1 November 1914, Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel. The defeat prompted the British Admiralty to dispatch two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy the German squadron, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. The discovery of the wreck was announced in December 2019 by Mensun Bound.