 After her commissioning into the High Seas Fleet , Stuttgart was used as a gunnery training ship for the Fleet 's gunners . At the outbreak of World War I , she was mobilized and served with the Fleet , along with the other gunnery ships like the armored cruiser Blücher . After the outbreak of war , she and several other cruisers were tasked with patrol duties in the Heligoland Bight . The cruisers were divided with the torpedo boat flotillas , and assigned to rotate through nightly patrols into the North Sea . As part of this operation , Stuttgart conducted a patrol on the night of 15 August with Cöln and the I and II Torpedo @-@ boat Flotillas , without incident . 
