Wiesbaden-class cruiser

The Wiesbaden class was a pair of light cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine shortly before the First World War: Wiesbaden, built by AG Vulcan at Stettin, and Frankfurt, built at the Kiel imperial yard. They closely followed the Graudenz class but carried eight 15 cm guns instead of twelve 10.5 cm guns, and their steam turbines gave a top speed of 27.5 knots. Wiesbaden, laid down in 1913 and commissioned on 23 August 1915, saw only one major action, the Battle of Jutland, where she was crippled and became the center of a melee before sinking with only one survivor. Frankfurt survived the war, was interned at Scapa Flow and was later expended as a target by the US Navy in 1921.