Description
The S. M. S. Beowulf was a part of the “Siegfried” class of coastal defense ships. She was commissioned in 1892 at the beginning of the Kaiserliche Marine’s “battleship era.” Interestingly, her first commander was Prinz Heinrich of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s brother. At the time, Heinrich was a Kapitän zur See (his U.S. Navy equivalent today might command an aircraft carrier). [Prinz Heinrich later rose to the rank of Großadmiral, one of six in the Kaiserliche Marine]. The Beowulf was modernized early in the 20th Century, but in reality she did not have sufficient artillery to be a real threat. When WW I began, she was used for coastal defense. Late in the war she served as an U-Boot target ship and as an icebreaker in the Baltic. After the war, she was scrapped. The postcard shows her in profile entering a port or channel. The postcard was never mailed.
