Brummer-class cruiser

The Brummer class was a pair of fast light mine-laying cruisers, Brummer and Bremse, built for the Imperial German Navy during the First World War. Both ships were built by AG Vulcan at Stettin. The Germans had only two older minelayers at the outbreak of war and needed fast specialized ships, and the design drew on four high-powered steam turbines that Vulcan had been building for the Russian cruiser Svetlana; the machinery was confiscated in 1914 and reused. The two ships laid a series of minefields, and in October 1917 they attacked a British convoy to Norway, sinking two escorting destroyers and nine of twelve merchant ships. They were interned at Scapa Flow and scuttled by their crews on 21 June 1919.