Qualla: SMS Ariadne https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:35 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SMS Ariadne https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne SMS Ariadne: Introduction https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Arthur Renard (1858–1934), Public domain. She lay at the bottom of the North Sea for fifty-nine years before anyone found her again. Divers in 1973 located the wreck of the SMS Ariadne about four nautical miles from where the official log said she had gone down - which is unsurprising, because the men who watched her capsize on 28 August 1914 had other things on their minds than a careful bearing. Ariadne was a Gazelle-class light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy, the fifth of ten built around the turn of the century, and on the morning of the first naval battle of the First World War she was caught steaming hard toward gunfire she did not understand by British battlecruisers whose 12-inch and 13.5-inch guns she could not answer. The fight took twenty minutes. She lasted another two hours, on fire from end to end, before she rolled over.

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Image: Arthur Renard (1858–1934) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SMS Ariadne: The Quiet Years https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Ariadne was the kind of ship navies build a lot of and then do not quite know what to do with. Laid down at AG Weser in Bremen in December 1899, launched in August 1900 with a speech from the director of the Imperial Shipyard at Wilhelmshaven, she was 105 meters long, displaced a...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-the-quiet-years.mp3 0:06 2 full SMS Ariadne: Reactivated https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. When war broke out at the end of July 1914, the Imperial Navy needed every hull. Ariadne was recommissioned on 2 August - two days after the German declaration of war on Russia, two days before Britain declared on Germany. Her new commander was Kapitaen zur See Hans Seebohm. Her ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-reactivated.mp3 0:06 3 full SMS Ariadne: Fog and Battlecruisers https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On the morning of 28 August, Ariadne was at anchor inside the Weser estuary, having just rotated out of the patrol line. Reports of British cruisers and destroyers attacking off Heligoland started coming in. She raised steam and went out. The fog that day was thick enough that sh...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-fog-and-battlecruisers.mp3 0:06 4 full SMS Ariadne: Hours on Fire https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Her surviving crew flooded the forward magazine to keep the propellant from cooking off, then assembled on the forecastle while fires raged through the rest of the ship. The German light cruiser Danzig came alongside before three o'clock and began taking men off, joined by Strals...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-hours-on-fire.mp3 0:06 5 full SMS Ariadne: The Wreck and the Lesson https://qualla.com/sms-ariadne/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Ariadne lies today north of the island of Norderney, at 54 degrees 9 minutes north and 7 degrees 7 minutes east, in water deep enough that recreational divers can reach her in good conditions. She was a small loss in the grand arithmetic of the First World War - one of three Germ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/t/h/sms-ariadne-wp/u1th-sms-ariadne-the-wreck-and-the-lesson.mp3 0:06 6 full