aft. This was necessary because the aft decks of earlier designs were usually awash when steaming at high speed, even in calm seas. The ships were also equipped with a bulbous bow to reduce drag on the hull, the first time the feature was used in the German Navy. The ships as designed required a crew of 46 officers and 1,140 enlisted sailors. Service as a squadron flagship would increase that number by an additional 14 officers and 62 sailors. The vessels carried a number of small boats, including two picket boats, one barge, two launches, two cutters, and three yawls. Machinery The ships of the class were equipped with four sets of marine-type turbine engines, each of which drove a three-bladed screw propeller that was in diameter. The turbines mounted in were equipped with Föttinger fluid transmission, while those on the other three ships were two sets of direct-coupled turbines with geared transmissions. The ships had 24 coal-fired marine-type single ended boilers and eight oil-fired marine-type boilers. The power plants were designed to provide and 295 revolutions per minute. Maximum speed was rated at . The ships were equipped with a pair of rudders mounted side by side, as opposed to the tandem rudders used on the -class ships. The ships' turbines were equipped with Föttinger gears, which significantly improved performance at cruising speeds and provided a corresponding increase in range of about 20 percent. The vessels were designed to store of coal and of oil in purpose-built storage spaces; the hull areas between the torpedo bulkhead and the outer wall of the ship were used to store additional fuel. Maximum fuel capacity was of coal and of oil. This was estimated to give a range of up to about at a cruising speed of . Electrical power on the vessels was provided by eight diesel generators that put out 2,320 kilowatts at 220 volts. Armament The s were equipped with a main battery of eight new 35 cm SK L/45 guns in four twin gun turrets. The turrets were mounted in superfiring pairs fore and aft of the main superstructure. The guns were placed in Drh LC/1914 mountings, which could elevate to 20 degrees and depress to −5 degrees. The guns were supplied with a total of 720 armor-piercing shells, or 90 per gun. The weapons were designed to fire 600 kg (1,323 lb) shells at a rate