USS Ostfriesland

USS Ostfriesland was a pre-dreadnought battleship named for a German province bordering on the Netherlands and the North Sea. Her keel was laid down in 1908 at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. She was launched in September 1909, and commissioned as SMS Ostfriesland in the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) in May 1911.

Ostfriesland was surrendered to the Allies following World War I and commissioned into the United States Navy on April 7, 1920, at Rosyth, Scotland, with Captain J.F. Hellweg in command.

Though in need of repairs, the ship managed to sail to New York where she decommissioned September 20, 1920. Ostfriesland, with several other ex-German warships, became targets for a demonstration of air power. Bombed by Army planes from Langley Field in Virginia, she was sunk on July 21, 1921, about 60 miles off the Viriginia Capes.

General Characteristics

• Displacement: 24,500 tons
• Length: 546 feet
• Beam: 93.3 feet
• Draft: 29.5 feet
• Speed: 21 knots
• Complement: 1150 officers and men
• Armament: 12 12-inch guns, 14 5.9-inch guns, six 19.7-inch torpedo tubes