SMS Empress and Queen Maria Theresa

The SMS Empress and Queen Maria Theresa 1900
Overview
Type	Armored cruiser
Shipyard	Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino , Trieste -San Roco
Keel laying	July 1, 1891
Launch	April 29, 1893
delivery	November 8, 1894
Commissioning	March 24, 1895
Decommissioning	February 7, 1917
Whereabouts	1920 to Great Britain, scrapped in Elba
Technical specifications
displacement	5,164 t, maximum 6,026 t
length	111.67 m above all
width	16.26 m
Draft	6.13 m
crew	475 men
drive	6 cylinder boilers 2 triple expansion machines 9000 HP , 2 screws
speed	18.9 kn
Range	3500 nm at 10 kn
Armament	2 × 24 cm Krupp L / 35 C / 86 cannons in single turrets 8 × 15 cm L / 35 C / 86 casemate guns 12 × 4.7 cm L / 44 Skoda rapid fire cannons 6 × 4.7 cm L / 33 Hotchkiss rapid fire guns 4 × 45 cm surface torpedo tubes
Coal supply	746 t
Armor Belt armor Deck armor Gun turrets Barbettes Casemates Command tower	100 mm 38–57 mm 40 mm 100 mm 80 mm 20–50 mm

The SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresa was an armored cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy . She took part in the opening of the Kiel Canal and in the international naval operations in 1897 off Crete during the Turkish-Greek War and from 1900 off China after the Boxer Rebellion . Obsolete
at the beginning of the First World War , it served as a port watch ship in Sebenico from 1914–1917 . Decommissioned and dismantled in 1917, the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa served as a barge for the German Mediterranean submarine flotilla until the end of the war.

Building history

The SMS Empress and Queen Maria Theresa 1895

The Empress and Queen Maria Theresia was designed as a torpedo ramming cruiser of the Emperor Franz Joseph I class and was intended to be the third ship ( hull number "C") of this class. Since it was already becoming apparent during the planning phase that this class of ship would be obsolete within a very short time, the design was changed considerably. The water displacement was increased by 1,000 ts , a side armor, stronger propulsion systems and reinforced middle artillery were installed.

The Empress and Queen Maria Theresa was an armored cruiser with tubular battle masts, which was heavily influenced by the French armored cruiser Dupuy de Lome . Although the tendency was to have the ship built in England - five English shipyards took part in the competition - the award was made to the STT ( Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino ) San Rocco shipyard in Trieste .

Since the company did not have its own capacity, the guns had to be bought from the Friedrich Krupp AG company in Essen. Two 24 cm L / 35 cannons of the model C / 86 were installed in individual turrets. For the first time, the aiming equipment of the heavy artillery was no longer hydraulically driven, but electrically driven, which brought further weight savings. There were also eight 15 cm L / 35 Krupp C / 86 cannons in casemates. Twelve 4.7 cm L / 44 Skoda rapid-fire cannons and six 4.7 cm L / 33 Hotchkiss rapid-fire cannons were set up as light weapons for defense against torpedo boats . The armament was supplemented by four 45 cm surface torpedo tubes.
The armored cruiser was protected by a belt armor of 100 mm and an armored deck of 38 to 57 mm thickness. The armored turrets on the heavy guns were 40 mm thick, their barbeds 100 mm. The casemates had 80 mm armor protection, the command tower 20 to 50 mm.

The drive system consisted of four double-ended and two single-ended cylinder boilers and two standing 3-cylinder triple expansion machines that generated 9,000 PSi on two screws and enabled a speed of 18.9 kn .

The keel of the new building at STT was laid on July 1, 1891, the launch took place on April 29, 1893 and the ship was put into service on March 24, 1895. The construction costs for the SMS Maria Theresia were 25% higher than the two existing torpedo piling cruisers and amounted to 7.5 million crowns . It was supposed to take on the typical tasks of an armored cruiser - protection of the battle fleet and quick reconnaissance - but shortly after its commissioning it was no longer able to cope with the potential opponents in terms of armament and speed.

In 1910 the ship was subjected to an upgrade because it was supposed to continue to serve as a training ship. The two top-heavy tubular masts were replaced by battle masts, and the Krupp guns were exchanged for 19 cm Škoda guns. The armor protection of the barbeds of the heavy guns was increased to 125 mm. The casemate guns were grouped at the four corners of the superstructure deck and modernized into rapid loading cannons. The light armament was also arranged differently.

Mission history

On March 24, 1895, the armored cruiser Empress and Queen Maria Theresa put into service as the flagship of the cruiser division of the so-called summer squadron. After exercises with the squadron in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I , she left Pola on May 17th with part of the division under the command of Archduke Karl Stephan to take part in the opening of the Kiel Canal.

The Trabant built in Austria

She was accompanied by the cruiser SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I . and the Trabant torpedo ship . The association ran north via Gibraltar and got into very difficult weather. The Empress and Queen Maria Theresa had a 35 ° list at times. The Trabant suffered an engine failure and had to call at El Ferrol as a port of emergency. The two cruisers called at Brest on June 1st. Trabant arrived two days later but went to dock for necessary repairs. The cruisers continued to Kiel on the 6th , where they arrived on June 11th and stayed until the 22nd. The Trabant , which had also called in Hamburg after repairs had been carried out in Brest, rejoined the association on the 20th. The return march took place via Plymouth , where the Trabant unlocked again after visiting the Danish naval base in Frederikshavn . On the further journey the torpedo ship went to Brest as a postholder. From Gibraltar, the association then ran back home and reached Pola on July 15th. The armored cruiser was launched on September 14th, and returned to service for the summer squadron on March 31st, 1896.

Operation in front of Crete

On May 27, 1896, the armored cruiser left Teodo to move to Crete in the face of increased Greek-Turkish tensions . The uprising of the Greek population of the island against the Turks was not supported by the European powers, which prevented the rebels from interfering and supplying the rebels with weapons through the presence of their ships. The armored cruiser remained off Canea from May 29 to July 26 . After a brief visit to Piraeus , he was deployed off Crete from July 31st to October 8th and was temporarily off Kandia , Rethymno , Canea and in Suda Bay. On October 10th and 11th, the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa visited Salonika , which was then Turkish , before returning to Pola via Teodo and the Dalmatian coast by October 22nd.

The gunboat Sebenico

The ongoing tensions between Greece and the Ottoman Empire led to another departure of the ship on November 4th, 1896. The Empress and Queen Maria Theresa returned to Saloniki (November 8th to December 27th) and then ran over the then still Turkish Sigri on Lesbos to Smyrna . From January 8, 1897, it ran on the Turkish side of the Aegean Sea to Rhodes (January 14) and then again to Canea on Crete. On January 24th the cruiser moved to Piraeus, where the torpedo cannon boat kukSMS Sebenico arrived on the 29th . Both ships moved to Canea on February 4th.

The landing of Greek troops in Crete on February 15, 1897 led to the open outbreak of the Turkish-Greek War and the intervention of the great powers to neutralize Crete. Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy and Austria-Hungary occupied parts of the island and occasionally intervened in the fighting between the Greeks and the Turks. The Austro-Hungarian Navy formed the third largest naval unit off Crete, comprising up to 16 units. The tower ship SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie , the torpedo cruiser SMS Tiger and later also SMS Leopard , the torpedo ships SMS Satellit , SMS Blitz and SMS Komet , and gradually eight torpedo boats, joined the flagship Empress and Queen Maria Theresia and the Sebenico Workshop ship Cyclop . On February 21, the armored cruiser intervened with its artillery in the land fighting near Akrotiri and on the 25th occupied Kandia with a landing corps. Another operation against land targets took place in March. The Austrian units changed positions several times in agreement with the international leadership of the blockade squadron. The protected cruiser SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I arrived in August and finally the new coastal armored ship SMS Wien arrived in September to replace the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa . The commanding admiral of the squadron, Rear Admiral Johann Edler von Hinke , transferred to the Wien on September 9th at sea and the Maria Theresa arrived in Pola on September 13th, 1897, where she decommissioned on the 20th.

Use in the Caribbean

After an inspection by the Austrian heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand , the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa left Pola on May 9, 1898 for the West Indies on the occasion of the Spanish-American War . It ran via Gibraltar, Las Palmas , St. Vincent , Fort de France and St. Lucia to Kingston (Jamaica) on June 23 . From there she ran to Cuba and, in addition to files from the local consulate, took 83 refugees from Santiago de Cuba by boat , which she transported to Kingston. From July 14th to 19th she was in Havana to support the consulate there. After the armistice between Spain and the United States, the armored cruiser began its return journey in Kingston on August 29. There were Bermuda , Ponta Delgada and then Tanger started, where to older claims of the consulate prevailed. After traveling over 14,178 nm, the ship reached Pola again via Gibraltar on October 9, 1898.
In November she still took part in exercises off the Dalmatian coast and in December tests were carried out on her with a Marconi radio station. From April 1899, further overhauls and improvements were made.

Use in East Asia

On May 23, 1900, the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa was put back into service for normal naval use. The news of the Boxer Rebellion in China led to her dispatch to China on June 23, where she was supposed to cooperate with the international units. The protected cruiser SMS Zenta had been on the East Asian station since autumn 1899 . On July 24th, the Austro-Hungarian Navy dispatched the cruisers SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth , who had only returned from the Far East in January, and SMS Aspern .

The Zenta 1899

The Maria Theresia scored on a journey through the Suez Canal and Aden , Colombo , Singapore , Hong Kong and Shanghai on August 7 in the roads before Taku and sat a landing party of 160 men with two guns ashore. The Zenta , also lying in front of Taku, had already given two contingents of 103 men ashore in June. Four of them died in Beijing, including the commander of the cruiser. Empress Elisabeth, who left their homeland at the end of July, and Aspern arrived under Rudolf Count Montecuccoli on September 7th and 8th before Taku and put more troops ashore. The Maria Theresia stayed in the Yellow Sea until the beginning of December , when she went to Japan for maintenance work. On February 6, 1902, she arrived in Shanghai and supported the international intervention forces. On the 10th, the Aspern from the Yellow Sea was added, but it was soon damaged by a British steamer. On the 22nd, the Zenta arrived, who had made a trip to Bangkok . At the beginning of March, the armored cruiser made a trip up the Yangtze to Nanjing , then visited the German base in Tsingtau for the first time on the march with the Zenta to the Yellow Sea from March 15 to 17 .

The Empress Elisabeth

On April 30th, Maria Theresia , Elisabeth and Zenta Chemulpo called at, where the torpedo cruiser Leopard arrived, which was now strengthening its forces off China via Australia and the South Seas. On May 6th, the four Austrian cruisers left the Korean port again. The Maria Theresia went with Elisabeth and Zenta to Nagasaki, where on May 12 the later Fleet Commander Anton Haus their commander Victor Bless of Sambuchi replaced. Under his command she ran again to Shanghai and up the Yangtze as the largest ship to date as far as Hankau , where she stayed from May 27th to June 5th. In July and August the armored cruiser was mostly in the Yellow Sea, where on July 28th in Chefoo the Empress Elisabeth and Zenta began their march back home. They arrived in Pola on October 1st with the Leopard , who was recalled in mid-June . The Maria Theresa attended from 10 to 15 September the Russian base Vladivostok and in October in Uraga outdated in the dock. She then went back to the Yellow Sea, visited Tsingtau again from December 5th to 8th and then went to Shanghai, where Aspern , overtaken in Japan, arrived on the 21st and was released on January 2nd, 1902.
Until October 1902, the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa was the only ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in East Asia. In May she visited Tsingtau and some Korean ports before starting her march back home on October 3 in Hong Kong. After a visit from Saigon , she met Kaiser Karl VI in Singapore with the releasing armored cruiser SMS . together. The two cruisers separated on October 28th and the Maria Theresa continued her journey home via Penang , Ceylon, Aden and the Suez Canal until she entered Pola on December 9th. On December 17, 1902, the armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresia was temporarily decommissioned.

Modifications and other uses

The ship was rebuilt in 1903 and 1904. The tubular masts and their fighting stalls have been removed. The artillery and magazines were improved to allow higher rates of fire. The prime movers were overhauled and new generators were installed. In addition, the cruiser received a radio system. The armored cruiser was put back into service on October 15, 1904, but ran aground 20 days later on November 4. By July 1905, the bottom and stern of the ship were repaired and four propeller blades were replaced. After five months of service in the fleet, the cruiser was part of the reserve in the Pola arsenal from December 1905. By the summer of 1910, several conversions were made to increase combat value. The heavy artillery was replaced and the medium artillery modernized and reorganized. The original swallow nests have been removed.
On June 15, 1910, the armored cruiser came back into service as the flagship of the cruiser squadron. Then assigned to the reserve fleet, the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa made a trip to the Levant , through the Aegean Sea and to Palestine from February 28 to June 1, 1911 . Longer stays were from March 16 to 27 in Saloniki, from April 1 to April 19 in Smyrna and from May 9 to 19 in Beirut . At the end of May the crew of the SMS Taurus (III), the station ship in Constantinople , was replaced in Syra . On June 1, the Maria Theresia returned to Pola and was subjected to changes in the shipyard because the new ventilation of the hull had not proven itself. Further improvements to the guns of the middle artillery were also necessary. In mid-September 1911 she was then assigned as a station ship for the Levante station. On September 14th, she went to the station area and called at many ports again. Longer stays took place in Piraeus from October 6 to December 12, in Alexandria from December 22 to January 14, 1912, in Beirut from January 17 to 30, 1912 and in Beirut from March 7 to 19, 1912 Smyrna instead. During the stay in Piraeus the commandant was received by the Greek King George . On April 28th, the cruiser arrived again off the Dalmatian coast.
The next trip to the station area began on September 2nd with longer stops in front of Beirut (September 14th to October 1st), Alexandria (October 8th to November 1st) and Saloniki (from November 4th). When the Balkan War broke out , the armored cruiser was in front of Saloniki. The cruiser evacuated refugees from Bosnia with his boats to Austrian ships lying in the roadstead. The armored cruiser left Saloniki on December 4th and returned to Pola by the 6th.
There was another trip to the station area, for which the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa and Empress Elisabeth left Pola on February 17, 1913. During this trip, the armored cruiser lay in Smyrna from February 21 to March 5, and on the 27th helped fight a large fire in the city. The Elisabeth was already over 23 continue to Constantinople Opel, where it remained until mid-June. The Maria Theresa moved through Syra to Salonika, where it remained from 8 to 25 March. On March 9, the home waters at Cattaro were reached and on May 26, 1913, the armored cruiser was decommissioned. A training trip planned for the spring of 1914 by the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa with cadets was canceled due to machine problems.

Use in World War

At the beginning of the First World War , the armored cruiser was no longer able to fight. 1914–1917 he was therefore a port watch in Sebenico . On February 7, 1917, the SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresa in Pola was decommissioned. Their guns were expanded and used on land. Until the end of the war, the ship was used as a barge for the German Mediterranean submarine flotilla (30 officers, 320 men).

Final fate

At the end of January 1920 the cruiser was awarded to Great Britain by the Allied naval delegation in Paris , which sold it to the Italian steelworks Vaccaro & Co. for demolition. It was towed to Portoferraio ( Elba ) and broken up there.

• Annotation:

For the sake of authenticity, the place names are given in the spelling of the Imperial and Royal Navy. The links refer to today's conditions.

literature

• Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau, Eugene Kolesnik (eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
• René Greger: Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. Ian Allan, London 1976, ISBN 0-7110-0623-7 .
• Erwin S. Sieche: The cruisers of the k. and k. Navy (= naval arsenal with international naval news and naval overview 27). Podzun-Pallas et al., Wölfersheim-Berstadt et al. 1994, ISBN 3-7909-0506-2 .

Web links

Commons : SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Empress and Queen Maria Theresa
• Armored cruiser Maria Theresia
• The KuK. Cruiser (PDF; 3.6 MB) by András Veperdi

Footnotes

1. ↑ SMS Taurus (III), 970 t large yacht station in 1909 bought as Nirvana built in Britain as a private yacht for a French client 1904, after the World War State yacht in Italy