Meteor class (1887)
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|---|---|
| Meteor- class | |
 The kuk SMS Blitz 1900 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Torpedo gunboat , destroyer |
| units | 3 |
| Shipyard |
Schichau-Werke , Elbing |
| Launch | June 15, 1887 to August 18, 1888 |
| delivery | September 1887 to November 1888 |
| Decommissioning | 1918 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
358–360 t, maximum 422 t |
| length |
58.73 m or 60.68 m |
| width |
7.4 m |
| Draft |
3.06 m or 2.35 m |
| crew |
61 men |
| drive |
2 locomotive boilers , |
| speed |
20.5-23 kn |
| Armament |
9 × 47 mm Hotchkiss rapid fire guns, |
The three torpedo cannon boats of the Meteor class were built as torpedo ships for the Austro-Hungarian Navy . The Meteor differed slightly in size and armament from the two following boats, Blitz and Komet . The boats developed from the first division torpedo boats of the German Navy were the first export order from the Schichau shipyard in Elbing for a large type of torpedo boat , later known as a destroyer , which was followed by others, such as the Russian Kasarski class .
The Austro-Hungarian Navy procured four other similar boats until 1896, two of which, the Satellite (1893, 616 t) and Magnet (1896, 544 t), according to different plans from Schichau and the Planet (1891, 540 t) from Palmers from England were delivered. The Trabant (1890, 610 t) was built in Trieste .
Building history
The Meteor was the second order from the Austro-Hungarian Navy to the East Prussian shipyard after two torpedo boats ( sparrowhawk , hawk ) of 86 tons, which had been delivered in 1886. In November 1886 the order for the 360 ton Meteor was placed, which was launched on May 15, 1888. The propulsion system of the boat consisted of two locomotive boilers and a triple expansion machine that could produce up to 3500 PSi. During a test drive on August 25, 1888, the Meteor reached 23.1 knots. This led to a special bonus for the shipyard, but the Meteor never reached such a speed again in service.
The boat was armed with nine 47 mm Hotchkiss rapid fire cannons, which were set up on the sides. In addition, a rigid 35 cm torpedo tube was added during completion.
After the above-mentioned high-speed trip , the SMS Meteor was taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Navy on September 3, 1887 and immediately began the transfer trip to the Mediterranean. On the way, the boat stopped at Elsinore , Cowes and Gibraltar before reaching the Austrian naval port of Pola on September 27th .
Two more boats were ordered in October 1887, and construction began in February and April 1888. They were launched on July 7th as lightning and on August 18th, 1888 as a comet . The new boats were two meters longer than the Meteor with 59 m between the perpendiculars . The forecastle was longer and the greatest width of 7.42 m of the spindle-shaped hull was therefore relatively further aft. The normal draft was only 2.11 m, so that the displacement of the replicas remained almost identical at 360 t (maximum 420 t). Propulsion system and armament corresponded to the Meteor . Only the two 47 mm rapid-fire cannons in front of the bridge came from Skoda and had a longer L / 44 barrel. This weapon later also replaced the Hotchkiss cannons. With a coal supply of 104 t, the new boats had a sailing range of 3570 nm at 11 kn.
The comet reached on their acceptance trip on October 25, 1888 20.65 kn at a power of 2,860 PSI. The Blitz , which had been tested for some time, was removed the following day and began its transfer journey. On August 29, she reached 21.5 kn at 2900 PSi. On her voyage to the Mediterranean, she stopped at Elsinore , Dover , Plymouth (31 days), El Ferrol and Gibraltar and then visited Palermo and Messina before reaching Pola on December 23rd. The Komet followed into the Mediterranean on November 10th via the Dutch naval base Den Helder , IJmuiden , Portsmouth (13 days stay), Brest , Cádiz , Gibraltar (2 days after lightning ) and Messina. She also arrived in Pola on December 27, 1888.
Mission history
The SMS Meteor , which arrived in Pola on September 27, 1887 , was fully equipped and carried out some tests. A maximum speed of only 19.7 kn was achieved. In April 1888, the boat made a test drive with the Crown Princess Stephanie on board. This was followed by the Meteor's only long trip abroad during its service with an association to the world exhibition in Barcelona , where it stayed from May 10th to 27th. The journey took place from April 27th via Messina and the Strait of Bonifacio and on the return journey until June 3rd Messina was called again.
In 1889 the Komet made a trip along the Italian Adriatic coast from September 18 and visited Venice , Ancona , then Split and again on the Italian side Manfredonia , Bari , Brindisi and Taranto , before returning to Pola via Corfu until October 26. On December 24th, 1889 she took Empress Elisabeth , her youngest daughter Marie Valerie and her fiancé, Archduke Franz Salvator , on board in front of Miramare Castle in "strictest secrecy" for a cruise in the Gulf of Trieste, which took place after Christmas on December 27th. left the boat in Trieste .
The three torpedo cannon boats were out of service in winter and mostly practiced together with the smaller torpedo boats in summer. In November 1895 the Blitz moved to Piraeus , traveled through the Aegean Sea ( Saloniki , Skyros , Syros , the then Turkish Limnos , the Turkish island Tenedos , the then still Turkish Chios , Çeşme on the Anatolian coast, the Greek Santorin , Nio, Parvo , Mykonos , Zea , Cerigo at the southern tip of the Peloponnese) and then along the Greek coast via Calamotta and Ithaka to Teodo , where the home waters were reached. The Blitz reached Pola again in March 1896 via some ports on the Dalmatian coast .
Operation in front of Crete
The landing of Greek troops in Crete in February 1897 during the Turkish-Greek War led to the intervention of the great powers and the Austro-Hungarian Navy was one of the massively intervening units. A total of 20 ships and boats of the Kriegsmarine were deployed off Crete and the Austrian Navy Association was the third largest after the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina . The Blitz moved in March as the ninth unit with the torpedo boats Star and Krähe to Crete and stayed there until the beginning of December 1897. In early April, the Komet was the twelfth unit to replace the originally intended meteor , which had failed due to a boiler damage, and moved the torpedo boats Flamingo with the torpedo boats , Marabu and Harpie to Crete, only to be withdrawn at the end of October together with the torpedo boats Flamingo , Marabu and Krähe . After the arrival of the Komet , the kuk blockade association consisted of the two aforementioned destroyers and five torpedo boats, units that had already arrived in February and early March: the armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresia as flagship, the tower ship SMS Kronprinzessin Archduchess Stephanie , the torpedo cruiser SMS Tiger , the torpedo ships SMS Sebenico and SMS Satellit as well as three other torpedo boats ( Sperber , Kiebitz , Elster ).
Later use and modifications
The Blitz remained in service at the usual times after the Crete mission and carried out radio tests in 1900 and 1901. In 1902 it was decommissioned and by 1903 the 47 mm stern gun had to be overhauled, and it received an additional, rotatable 35 cm torpedo tube on the rear of the ship, as the comparable Russian Kasarsky class had already received upon completion. After that, however, the boat went into the reserve. In the winter of 1906 , the Blitz was briefly a school boat for the Naval Academy. In the reserve, their boilers were exchanged in 1908. In August 1909 the boat was moved to Sebenico and served as a yacht for Archduchess Maria Josepha . She was then used regularly for coastal defense exercises and in autumn to monitor the Albanian coast until she was decommissioned in Pola in January 1914.
The Komet was also temporarily in reserve, but from 1904 it served as a school boat for the Naval Academy. Previously, in 1904, like the Blitz , she had received an additional, rotating torpedo tube on the stern. From 1911 she was again part of the torpedo boat flotilla and decommissioned on February 22, 1913. Her boilers were exchanged for two modern Yarrow boilers and she received a second chimney. On March 23, the obsolete Komet was put back into service and stationed in Sebenico for coastal protection tasks.
The Meteor was mostly in reserve until 1913, occasionally in service in the summer. In 1901 their boilers were overhauled, in 1910 new boilers were installed and the machine overhauled. In 1905 their masts were changed and a rotating torpedo tube was installed on the stern like the two newer boats. She carried out tasks outside of the normal exercises in 1905 when she carried out surveying tasks on the Dalmatian coast for four months in the summer. In 1913 she was equipped for warfare, reached 17.31 knots in the acceptance test and was then dispatched to control the Albanian coast like the Blitz , where she remained in service until the end of March 1914.
War effort
From 1914 the Meteor served as a local security boat in Pola with schoolwork. It secured transport ships, tracked enemy submarines and occasionally brought in emergency landed aircraft.
The Komet stationed in Sebenico remained in coastal protection and was also used as a mine sweeper. In March 1915 she was further modernized her torpedo armament, in which she received a rotatable torpedo tube for 45 cm torpedoes on the forecastle. The aft torpedo tube was replaced in the same way. The old rigid bow tube was removed and the bow closed. In addition, the boat received a radio system. When towing a torpedo boat, the Komet ran aground in October and was severely damaged. She had the same mishap in November, just eleven days back on duty. In 1917 she was attacked at Cape Planka by the French submarine Le Verrier , whose torpedo she missed. She herself was able to damage the submarine with a torpedo. The boat secured transports along the coast in 1917 and 1918. At the beginning of 1918 it was re-armed and the two front 47 mm guns were replaced by two 7 cm L / 45 rapid-fire cannons. At the end of September 1918, the comet hit the ground twice in quick succession near the island of Veglia . The screw and shaft as well as the bow rudder were badly damaged. The boat was brought to Sebenico and then to Pola until the end of the war, but it was no longer repaired.
The Blitz was put back into service after the outbreak of the World War and was used for coastal protection tasks between Pola and Cattaro without any particular incident until the end of the war.
Final fate of the three boats
SMS Meteor , Blitz und Komet were awarded to Italy and extradited in 1920. The three old boats were broken up there.
The torpedo vehicles of the Austro-Hungarian Navy
| Surname | Shipyard | Launch | in service | size | Armament | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| meteor | Schichau , Elbing | 05/15/1887 | 3.09.1887 | 360 t, 58.7 m, 23.1 kn | 9 × 47 mm SK, 1 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
| lightning | Schichau, | 07/07/1888 | 10/26/1888 | 358 t, 60.7 m, 21.3 kn | 9 × 47 mm SK, 1 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
| comet | Schichau, | 08/18/1888 | 10/25/1888 | 358 t, 60.7 m, 20.6 kn | 9 × 47 mm SK, 1 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
| planet | Palmers , Jarrow | 06/25/1889 | 12/6/1891 | 490 t, 66.9 m, 19.3 kn | 2 × 70 mm, 8 × 47 mm SK, 2 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
| Trabant | STT , Trieste | May 21, 1890 | 11/23/1890 | 530 t, 68.8 m, 20.3 kn | 2 × 70 mm, 8 × 47 mm SK, 2 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
| satellite | Schichau, | 09/21/1892 | 6/24/893 | 529 t, 69.3 m, 23 kn | 1 × 70 mm, 8 × 47 mm SK, 2 × TR | 1920 France, scrapped |
| magnet | Schichau, | 03/21/1896 | 5.07.1896 | 485 t, 71.0 m, 25.9 kn | 6 × 47 mm SK, 3 × TR | 1920 Italy, scrapped |
SMS Planet, built in England
The SMS Trabant built in Trieste
The SMS Magnet, also built at Schichau
literature
- Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Kolesnik (eds.): Conway's all the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-130-0
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I, ISBN 1-85170-378-0
- Erwin Sieche: torpedo ships and destroyers of the K. u. K. Marine , Marine-Arsenal: Volume 34, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt (1996), ISBN 3-7909-0546-1
- B. Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1905
Web links
- Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (accessed on April 27, 2012)
- Torpedo ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (accessed on April 27, 2012; PDF; 1.3 MB)
- Side elevation of the meteor on blueprints (accessed April 27, 2012)