SMS Pillau

SMS Pillau was a light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. The ship, originally ordered in 1913 by the Russian navy under the name Maraviev Amurskyy, was launched in April 1914 at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). However, due to the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the incomplete ship was confiscated by Germany and renamed SMS Pillau for the East Prussian port of Pillau (now Baltiysk, Russia). Pillau was commissioned into the German Navy in December 1914. She was armed with a main battery of eight 15 cm SK L/45 (5.9-inch) guns and had a top speed of 27.5 kn (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph). One sister ship was built, Elbing.

Pillau spent the majority of her career in II Scouting Group, and saw service in both the Baltic and North Seas. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga against the Russian Navy, and on 31 May – 1 June 1916, she saw significant action at the Battle of Jutland. She was hit by a large-caliber shell once in the engagement, but suffered only moderate damage. She assisted the badly damaged battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz reach port on 2 June after the conclusion of the battle. She also took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, though was not damaged in the engagement. Pillau was assigned to the planned, final operation of the High Seas Fleet in the closing weeks of the war, but a large scale mutiny forced it to be canceled.

After the end of the war, Pillau was ceded to Italy as a war prize in 1920. Renamed Bari, she was commissioned in the Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in January 1924. She was modified and rebuilt several times over the next two decades. In the early years of World War II, she provided gunfire support to Italian troops in several engagements in the Mediterranean. In 1943, she was slated to become an anti-aircraft defense ship, but while awaiting conversion, she was sunk by USAAF bombers in Livorno in June 1943. The wreck was partially scrapped by the Germans in 1944, and ultimately raised for scrapping in January 1948.

In 1912, the Imperial Russian Navy held a design competition for a new class of cruisers intended for service in their colonial empire, which were to replace the ageing Askold and Zhemchug in East Asian waters. Several foreign firms, including the German company Schichau-Werke, submitted proposals for the vessels. The Russian fleet was in dire need of new cruisers, and only Schichau promised to meet an early delivery deadline, so they received the contracts for two ships in December 1912. These were to have been named Maraviev Amurskyy and Admiral Nevelskoy; the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 led to their seizure by the German government, and they became Pillau and Elbing, respectively.

Pillau was 135.3 meters (444 ft) long overall and had a beam of 13.6 m (45 ft) and a draft of 5.98 m (19.6 ft) forward. She displaced 4,390 t (4,320 long tons) normally and up to 5,252 t (5,169 long tons) at full load. The ship had a straight stem and a raised forecastle deck. Her superstructure included a conning tower just aft of the forecastle and a second deck house further aft. She was fitted with two pole masts equipped with spotting platforms. Pillau had a crew of twenty-one officers and 421 enlisted men.

Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of Marine steam turbines driving two 3.5-meter (11 ft) propellers. Steam was provided by six coal-fired Yarrow water-tube boilers and four oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were vented through three funnels located amidships. The propulsion system was rated to produce 30,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW) for a top speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph). Pillau carried 620 t (610 long tons) of coal, and an additional 580 t (570 long tons) of oil that gave her a range of approximately 4,300 nautical miles (8,000 km; 4,900 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

The ship was armed with eight 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, four were located amidships, two on either side, and two were side by side aft. She also carried four 5.2 cm (2 in) SK L/55 anti-aircraft guns, though these were replaced with a pair of two 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns. She was also equipped with a pair of 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes mounted on the deck. She could also carry 120 mines. The conning tower had 75 mm (3 in) thick sides, and the deck was covered with up to 80 mm (3.1 in) thick armor plate.

Pillau was ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy as Maraviev Amurskyy from the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig. She was laid down on 12 April 1913, and was launched on 11 April 1914, after which fitting-out work commenced. Following the start of World War I, which saw Germany and Russia on opposite sides of the conflict, the German government seized the ship on 5 August, which was already nearing completion. She was renamed Pillau after the town of that name. She was commissioned into service on 14 December to begin sea trials, under the command of Fregattenkapitän (FK—Frigate Captain) Lebrecht von Klitzing. In January 1915, Klitzing was replaced by FK Konrad Mommsen. Pillau's initial testing was completed on 13 March 1915.