SMS S119

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

SMS S119 was a German S90-class torpedo boat built by Schichau at Elbing (now Elbląg, Poland) and completed in 1903. The S90 class had 48 torpedo boats designed to operate with the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea and to act as flotilla leaders when needed.

S119 was about 63 meters long, 7 meters wide, and displaced around 315 tons normally (up to 415 tons deep load). It was powered by two triple-expansion steam engines and three boilers, capable of about 27 knots, with a crew of 49. Its armament included three 5 cm guns and three 450 mm torpedo tubes, plus two reload torpedoes.

In peacetime, S119 served as a division or flotilla leader at various times and underwent boiler upgrades in 1913. By 1914 it was the leader of the 7th Half-Flotilla of the 4th Torpedo-boat Flotilla.

At the start of World War I, S119 remained in service with the 7th Half-Flotilla. On 17 October 1914, during the Battle off Texel, four German torpedo boats from the 7th Half-Flotilla, including S119 and commanded by Georg Thiele, set out to attack a British patrol. They were met by the British light cruiser Undaunted and destroyers from the Harwich Force. The German boats were outgunned and slower; S119 tried to torpedo Undaunted but was sunk by the British ships Loyal and Legion. Forty-seven members of S119’s crew were lost, and 34 were rescued that day, with two more saved the next day by a neutral fishing vessel. A lead-lined chest containing a codebook jettisoned by S119 was later recovered by a British trawler. The destroyer Georg Thiele was later named after S119’s commanding officer.