70419 - Battleship SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, 1913, 1/700

SMS Prinzregent Luitpold was a Kaiser class battleship that served in the High Seas Fleet of the German Imperial Navy during the First World War. She was named for Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, who died a few months after the ship was commissioned.

As originally designed, Luitpold would have been the first German battleship to feature a marine diesel engine on the center shaft. In December 1909, the Konstrukteurdepartement of the Reichsmarineamt (RMA), issued a paper advocating the use of diesel engines in large ships. The RMA argued that diesel power would provide significantly increased cruising range, easier refueling, and would require fewer engine room personnel to operate. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz endorsed the proposal and ordered construction of a battleship with diesel propulsion.

In February 1910, the RMA issued a contract to MAN for the development and construction of Luitpold's diesel engine. However, the giant six-cylinder, 12,000 bhp (8,900 kW) engine suffered numerous technical difficulties and was never installed. Indeed, the diesel was not ready for shipboard use until April 1917.

Luitpold was accordingly completed with only 14 of 16 boilers and two sets of Parsons steam turbines producing a designed 26,000 shp (19,400 kW). The diesel engine room was left empty. On trials, Luitpold produced 38,751 shp (28,897 kW) for a maximum speed of 21.7 knots (40 km/h). The ship was thus insignificantly slower than the rest of her sister ships, which used a full complement of boilers and three sets of turbines.

During the war, Prinzregent Luitpold was assigned to the 3rd Battleship Squadron along with her sister ships. Sailors on this ship participated in the German Revolution. She fought at the Battle of Jutland, firing 169 12-inch rounds and suffering no damage. She was interned at Scapa Flow and scuttled with the rest of the fleet on 21 June 1919. The wreck was raised in 1931 and broken up at Rosyth through 1933.

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