 Niobe served in both home and overseas waters in the Imperial Navy , before being reduced to a coastal defense ship after the outbreak of World War I. She survived the conflict and was one of six cruisers permitted to the Reichsmarine by the Treaty of Versailles . In 1925 , the German Navy sold the ship to the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes ( later Yugoslavia ) . There , she was renamed Dalmacija and served until April 1941 , when she was captured by the Italians during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia . Renamed Cattaro , she served in the Italian Regia Marina until the Italian surrender in September 1943 . She was then seized by the German occupiers of Italy , who restored her original name . She was used in the Adriatic briefly until December 1943 , when she ran aground on the island of Silba , and was subsequently destroyed by British Motor Torpedo Boats . The wreck was ultimately salvaged and broken up for scrap in 1947 – 49 . 
