Construction
Mecklenburg's keel was laid in 1899, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig, under construction number 676. She was ordered under the contract name "D", as a new unit for the fleet. The vessel was a member of the first class of battleships built under the direction of State Secretary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898. Mecklenburg was launched on 9 November 1901, the last ship of her class to be launched. Fitting out work proceeded faster on Mecklenburg than on her sister Schwaben, and so the former was commissioned first, on 25 May 1903, a full year before Schwaben. The ship's cost totaled 22,329,000 marks.
The ship was 126.8 m (416 ft) long overall and had a beam of 22.8 m (75 ft) and a draft of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical coal-fired boilers. Mecklenburg's powerplant was rated at 14,000 indicated horsepower (10,000 kW), which gave her a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Mecklenburg's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament system was rounded out with six 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.
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