SMS Albatross was a vessel meant for war, launched in 1907 as part of Germany’s Imperial Navy and part of the second Nautilus class. It was 100.9 meters long, 11.5 meters in beam, and 4.4 meters deep. With a crew of 10 officers and 191 enlisted men, it could displace up to 2,506 metric tons at full load. Armed with eight 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns and 288 naval mines, the ship was sent to the Baltic Sea in June 1915, with the mission to lay offensive and defensive minefields.
On July 2, the same year, near the island of Gotland, Russian armored cruisers ambushed the ship. Faced with the possibility of being captured, the crew sank the ship as part of an attempt to hide the minefield aboard and sought sanctuary in the neutral territory of Sweden. The Swedes agreed to help, and the crew were sinken the ship near the Knep Highway, a deep trench off the western coast of Gotland, leaving its cargo of mines and weapons behind.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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