SMS Friedrich der Grosse (1874)
SMS Friedrich der Grosse was an ironclad turret ship built for the German Kaiserliche Marine. She was the second of three Preussen-class ironclads, in addition to her two sister-ships Preussen and Grosser Kurfürst. Named for Frederick the Great, she was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1871 and completed in 1877. Her main battery of four 26 cm (10 in) guns was mounted in a pair of twin gun turrets amidships.
Friedrich der Grosse in 1887
Friedrich der Grosse under construction
Illustration of the fleet conducting maneuvers, including Friedrich der Grosse and several other ironclads and other vessels
SMS König Wilhelm was an armored frigate of the Prussian and later the German Imperial Navy. The ship was laid down in 1865 at the Thames Ironworks shipyard in London, originally under the name Fatih for the Ottoman Empire. She was purchased by Prussia in February 1867, launched in April 1868, and commissioned into the Prussian Navy in February 1869. The ship was the fifth ironclad ordered by the Prussian Navy, after Arminius, Prinz Adalbert, Friedrich Carl, and Kronprinz. She was built as an armored frigate, armed with a main battery of sixteen 24 cm (9.4 in) and five 21 cm (8.3 in) guns; several smaller guns and torpedo tubes were added later in her career.
König Wilhelm in Gravesend, England
Plan and profile drawing of SMS König Wilhelm
König Wilhelm after the 1895–1896 reconstruction into an armored cruiser
The Prussian ironclad squadron in 1870 at Plymouth, Illustrated Times