the second command flagship, the ships' usual complement was augmented by another 2 officers and 23 men. The Kaiser-class ships were excellent sea boats, but were very stiff, suffering a slight loss of speed in heavy swells. They were responsive to commands from the helm; they turned quickly initially, but suffered from severe torque at a hard rudder. With the rudder hard over, the ships would lose up to 66 percent of their speed and heel over as much as 8 degrees. The Kaiser-class ships had a transverse metacentric height of . Propulsion The Kaiser-class ships were the first German battleships to be powered by turbines. They used turbines from several different manufacturers as the Reichsmarineamt and German shipyards attempted to find an alternative to a Parsons turbine monopoly. Nevertheless, Kaiser and Kaiserin were both equipped with three sets of Parsons turbines. Friedrich der Grosse had three sets of AEG-Curtis turbines, while König Albert was powered by Schichau turbines. The turbines drove three-bladed screws that were in diameter, providing a design speed of . The ships had two rudders. Prinzregent Luitpold was equipped with two sets of Parsons turbines on the outer shafts. It was intended that a single 12,000 bhp Germania 6-cylinder 2-stroke diesel engine would drive the center shaft. However, the diesel power plant was not ready in time to be installed in Prinzregent Luitpold, so the ship sailed with only two shafts. On trials, Prinzregent Luitpold was approximately one half knot slower than her sisters. Steam was provided by 16 Schulz-Thornycroft water-tube boilers, except in Prinzregent Luitpold, which had only 14 boilers. Hollow grates were fitted to the boilers between 1916 and 1917. The three-shaft ships carried 3,600 metric tons of coal, which enabled a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . Prinzregent Luitpold carried a reduced bunkerage—3,200 metric tons—but was designed to carry 400 tons of oil for the diesel engine. On diesel power alone, Prinzregent Luitpold would have had a range of 2,000 nautical miles at 12 knots. Electrical power was provided by four double turbo-generators and two diesel generators. They produced a total output of 1,800 kilowatts at 225 volts. Armament The Kaiser-class ships each carried ten SK L/50 guns mounted in five twin turrets. One turret was mounted fore, two were mounted en echelon amidships, and the fourth and fifth turrets were mounted in a superfiring pair aft. The guns were