guns had 254 mm of wrought iron backed with 250 mm of teak. Modifications After 1886, three torpedo tubes were installed on each ship; one tube was placed in a swivel mount in the stern and two were placed in the bow, submerged. The tubes were supplied with a total of 12 torpedoes. Later, a pair of torpedo tubes were mounted in the ships' hulls above water on the broadside. The ships were more heavily rebuilt in the late 1890s; their engines were replaced and the boilers were ducted into a single large funnel. These improvements increased the speeds of the ships to . The battery of 8.7 mm guns was replaced with an equal number of SK L/30 guns and four guns. Each ship also had their old wrought iron armor and teak backing replaced with new Krupp armor that significantly increased their ability to withstand shell hits. Construction , the first ship of the class, was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1875, under construction number 74. The ship was launched on 21 July 1877 and commissioned into the fleet on 20 October 1878. AG Vulcan also built , which was laid down in 1876 under construction number 78. She was launched on 9 November 1878 and commissioned for service on 9 May 1881. was actually the first ship to be laid down; work on her keel began in 1874 at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel, under construction number 3. She was not launched until 13 May 1878, nearly one year after her sister Sachsen. She was commissioned on 4 August 1881, rendering her the third ship of the class to enter service. was the fourth and final ship of the class; she was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1876. She was launched on 28 July 1880 and commissioned into the fleet on 24 September 1883. The ships built by AG Vulcan—Sachsen and Württemberg—were completed in three and five years, respectively. The two vessels built by the Imperial Dockyard—Bayern and Baden—required eight and seven years' work, respectively. One of the primary causes for the great disparity in build times was the experience of the shipbuilders. AG Vulcan was an established commercial ship builder, while the Imperial Dockyards were recently founded and still lacked experience in large warship construction. Service history Though Sachsen entered service in 1878, she only participated in