by Ingo Beims
1/250 SMS Undine, 1904 (HMV)
SMS Undine 1904
Builders: Howaldtswerke Kiel
Sisterships in the Gazelle class
Amazone, Arcona, Ariadne, Frauenlob, Gazelle, Medusa, Niobe, Nymphe, Thetis,
Loa 105 m ( 344.4ft )
Beam 12,7 m
Displacement 2706/3112 t
8000 HP = 21,5 Knots
Armament 10 x 10,5 cm
10 x 3,7 cm
10 x 0,8 cm MG
SMS Undine was built in Kiel and was the last member of the Gazelle class of light cruisers. Commissioned on 5 January 1904; she was part of a tragic incident in October 1905.
During a nighttime exercise with the IV Torpedoboat squadron the lead-vessel S126 found herself under the rapidly travelling bows of Undine and wa suct clean in two…
S126 sank immediately .The close following S127 ran onto the stern of the sinking 126 and was also badly damaged. SMS Undine towed S 127 back to Kiel.
In 1910 Undine during a storm was able to assist the steamer ‘Nordstern’ and towed her to the safety of Kiel Harbour.
In 1912 she was placed into reserve.
At the outbreak of WW 1 and was tasked with coastal defence, serving at times as the Flagship of the Commander Coastal defence Admiral Mischke.
Undine ended her career whilst escorting the Ferry ‘Preussen’ from Trelleborg to Saßnitz. On this voyage she was struck by two torpedoes fired by the British submarine E19.
The survivors were picked up by the ‘Preussen’ and Torpedoboat V154
I would like to show you my card model of the German Imperial cruiser SMS Undine sitting in the floating drydock.
The ship is built from the card kit by HMV to a scale of 1/250 and is a challenging build; details of the build can be sen here- albeit in german.
http://www.kartonist.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=3547
The floating drydock is also a card model made by HMV a scale of 1/250
The figures are from Preiser
I have also enclosed some images of the same dry-dock housing my model of SMS Brandenburg with excursion vessel ‘Schaarhörn’ alongside
