The German cruiser SMS Albatross beached in neutral Sweden

SMS Albatross was a vessel meant for war, launched in 1907 as part of Germany’s Imperial Navy and part of the 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, 1915, Russian armored cruisers ambushed the ship. The Albatross was hit for the first time at 07:20, suffering heavy damage to its forecastle and foremast. As the ship listed heavily to port, the captain ordered it to be beached to prevent it from capsizing. The ship entered Swedish territorial waters at 07:45 but remained under fire for another twenty minutes until it reached Östergarn Sound.

The ship was forced to beach off the island of Gotland in neutral Sweden. Later that month, the Swedes refloated the vessel and interned it along with its crew for the remainder of the war. The ship was eventually returned to Germany in January 1919, sold for scrap, and broken up in Hamburg.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons