SMS ("His Majesty's Ship Prince-elector Friedrich Wilhelm") was one of the first ocean-going battleships of the German (Imperial Navy). The ship was named for Prince-elector () Friedrich Wilhelm, 17th-century Duke of Prussia and Margrave of Brandenburg. She was the fourth pre-dreadnought of the , along with her sister ships , , and . She was laid down in 1890 in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in 1891, and completed in 1893. The -class battleships carried six large-caliber guns in three twin turrets, as opposed to four guns in two turrets, as was the standard in other navies. served as the flagship of the Imperial fleet from her commissioning in 1894 until 1900. She saw limited active duty during her service career with the German fleet due to the relatively peaceful nature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result, her career focused on training exercises and goodwill visits to foreign ports. These training maneuvers were nevertheless very important to developing German naval tactical doctrine in the two decades before World War I, especially under the direction of Alfred von Tirpitz. She, along with her three sisters, saw only one major overseas deployment, to China in 1900–1901, during the Boxer Uprising. The ship underwent a major modernization in 1904–1905. In 1910, was sold to the Ottoman Empire and renamed . She saw heavy service during the Balkan Wars, primarily providing artillery support to Ottoman ground forces in Thrace. She also took part in two naval engagements with the Greek Navy—the Battle of Elli in December 1912, and the Battle of Lemnos the following month. Both battles were defeats for the Ottoman Navy. In a state of severe disrepair, the old battleship was partially disarmed after the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers early in World War I. On 8 August 1915 the ship was torpedoed and sunk off the Dardanelles by the British submarine with heavy loss of life. Description The four -class battleships were the first pre-dreadnought battleships of the (Imperial Navy). Prior to the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the German throne in June 1888, the German fleet had been largely oriented toward defense of the German coastline and Leo von Caprivi, chief of the (Imperial Naval Office), had ordered a number of coastal defense ships in the 1880s. In August 1888, the Kaiser, who had a strong interest in naval matters, replaced Caprivi