BAYERN

Sister ships:  BADEN

Notes:  An improvement on the preceding KÖNIG class, with a direct jump from 12" to 15" main battery guns (without the intervening 13.8" guns as had occurred in the battlecruisers), due to the German staff learning of the British plans for the 15"-gunned QUEEN ELIZABETH class.  Actually, the BAYERN class most closely resembles the ROYAL SOVEREIGN class, with the same caliber and layout of guns and very similar standards of protection.  As with most German ships of the period, they had a relatively low freeboard; adequate for operations in the North Sea, but they would have been very wet ships if they had ventured into the Atlantic.  They were the first German capital ships to be fitted with tripod masts.  A combination of coal-fired and oil-fired boilers were used (11 and three, respectively), and the coal-fired boilers also had the ability to use oil sprays.  Both ships achieved 22 knots on trials.  BAYERN was accepted into the High Seas Fleet on 30 June 1916, and took part in several operations in the Baltic.  During operations in the Gulf of Riga, BAYERN struck a mine on 12 October 1917; the damage caused severe flooding, with draught forward increasing to 36'.  Temporary patching ran into difficulties, and it took 19 days to reach Kiel for repairs.  Following World War I, BAYERN was interred with the majority of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow; upon hearing rumors that war would soon resume and that she would be used against her former country, BAYERN was scuttled by her German crew on 21 June 1919.  She was raised for scrap in September, 1934, and broken up at Rosyth.

		Navis 01
		Navis 01
		Navis 01n
		Scratchbuilt*
		Scratchbuilt*
		Scratchbuilt*

* Scratchbuilt by John Youngerman