SMS Leopard (1885)

SMS Leopard , 1914
Overview
Type	Torpedo cruiser
units	Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. , Elswick , Building N ° 481
Keel laying	4th December 1884
Launch	September 10, 1885
Commissioning	March 31, 1886
Whereabouts	1920 demolition in Italy
Technical specifications
displacement	1552 ts, max. 1730 ts
length	72.85 m over everything
width	10.36 m
Draft	4.73 m
crew	150-198 men
drive	4 double-ended cylinder boilers , 2 compound machines , 2 shafts, 6,385 PSi
speed	18.59 kn
Range	2800 nm at 10 kn (308 t coal)
Armament	2 × 120 mm L / 35 Krupp cannons 4 × 47 mm L / 33 cannons 6 × 47 mm revolver cannons 4 × 350 mm torpedo tubes
Armament from 1910	4 × 70 mm L / 45 cannons 10 × 47 mm L / 44 Skoda cannons (since 1891) 3 × 350 mm torpedo tubes
Coal supply	150 ts, max. 338 ts
Armor deck	12 to 50 mm
Sister ship	SMS Panther
similar	SMS Tiger

The SMS Leopard was a torpedo cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the second ship of the Panther class and was identical in construction to the type ship SMS Panther . Both ships were built in the UK at Armstrong Shipyard in Elswick. The SMS  Tiger built domestically in Trieste was similar . Initially classified as a "torpedo ship", the SMS  Leopard was considered a "small cruiser" from 1909. Mainly used as a driver's ship for torpedo boats, she also made some trips abroad. In the reserve since 1910, she served as a training ship for the torpedo school in spring 1914 and was only used as a guard ship during the First World War . In 1920 the SMS Leopard , which had been delivered to the Allies, was canceled in Messina .

Building history

On September 8, 1884, the then commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Admiral von Sterneck, demanded the construction of so-called torpedo ships in a memorandum. These should be able to attack enemy capital ships with torpedoes as well as to carry out armed reconnaissance and patrols. They should have a displacement of around 1560 ts and a top speed of 18-19 knots. After the funds for the construction of two ships were approved by the Austrian and Hungarian Reichstag , it was decided to have them built in England. After five offers had been obtained from the kuk naval attaché in London , the order for the construction of two first class torpedo ships was given to Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. , who built the ships at their new warship yard in Elswick near Newcastle upon Tyne . The "torpedo ships" were designed by William Henry White , who later became Director of Naval Construction of the Royal Navy from 1885 to 1902.

The steel hulls had a displacement of 1,557 ts (maximum up to 1730 ts), with a length of 240.75 ft. (73.42 m), a hull width of 10.39 m and a draft of 4.7 m on completion. Two standing two-cylinder compound machines with four double-ended cylinder tanks served as the drive, which gave the Leopard a speed of up to 18.74 knots .

The supervising kuk shipbuilding engineer Siegfried Popper , who later became the general shipbuilding engineer of the Austrian fleet, discovered during inspections that the ship, like her sister ship, would be heavily bow-heavy and lie up to 1.5 meters lower in the water at the front than at the stern . After lengthy differences of opinion with the shipyard and its chief designer William White, the latter had to admit the mistake, whereupon modifications were made (weight shifts) to at least halfway compensate for the mistake. The bow-heaviness could thus be reduced.

The armament consisted initially of two 12 cm-L35 / C80-guns of Krupp with round wedge closure on a front pivot -Ausrennlafette, four 4.7 cm-L / 33-rapid fire guns, six 4.7 cm Hotchkiss - revolver cannon and four single 35 cm torpedo tubes (one tube each in the bow, in the stern, port and starboard). As early as 1891, all 4.7 cm guns were replaced by ten 4.7 cm L / 44 rapid-fire guns of the Skoda type . In 1910 a modernization took place in which the armament of the Leopard was changed. Four 7 cm L / 45 rapid fire guns replaced the old 12 cm Krupp cannons, the stern torpedo tube was removed and the bulges for the 12 cm cannons removed.

Mission history

After completion, the Leopard was used as the lead ship of a torpedo flotilla. From April 1897 to March 1899, the ship's first major overseas mission took place in which it was used around Crete . From October 1900 to October 1901 she made a trip to the Pacific under the command of Friedrich Ritter Müller von Elblein to erect a memorial cross for sailors of the SMS Albatros on Guadalcanal , and then went to East Asia to the squadron that was involved in the fight against the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In 1903 it was reclassified to cruiser III. Class and from September 1907 another trip abroad to East Asia, where she stayed until February 1909. In 1909 the old ship was finally reclassified as a small cruiser and modernized and re-armed.

Trips, missions, whereabouts

• April 25 - May 27, 1888: in the association of the kuk Eskadre together with the sister ship Panther at the world exhibition in Barcelona
• June 25, 1888: run for exercise ride on reason for repair after Pola moved
• 1889–90: deactivated in reserve
• 1891: Participation in the summer maneuvers of the squadron (fleet), inspected by the emperor near Trogir
• 1892: deactivated in reserve
• 1893: Participation in the squadre's summer maneuvers
• 1894–96: deactivated in reserve; Replacement of the original 12 cm cannons with Krupp rapid fire guns
• April 12, 1897 - April 12, 1899: with the blockade squadron off Crete and in the Aegean Sea
• September 23, 1899: collision with SMS Vienna in the training squadron
• October 1, 1900 - October 1, 1901: friendship visits to Australia (including from December 30, 1900 to January 17, 1901 in Sydney ), Polynesia and Oceania with sea cadets on board; at Teteré , Solomon Islands, erection of a memorial cross for the dead sailors of the SMS Albatros who were killed by locals in 1896. Onward journey to China to the units sent because of the Boxer Rebellion, of which the Leopard met the SMS Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresia , SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth and SMS Zenta in Chemulpo at the beginning of May 1901 and exchanged parts of the crew; After a visit to the German base in Tsingtau from May 14th to 17th, march back to Europe from June 20th
• 1902: Participation in the squadre's summer maneuvers
• 1903: Participation in the squadre's summer maneuvers
• September 20, 1907 - April 13, 1909: friendship visits to East Asia under Rudolf Ritter von Benigni , journey on the Yangtze Kiang to Hankow, which is more than 1100 km upstream (April 1 to 7, 1908); April 21, 1908 Meeting with the SMS Empress Elisabeth , who has arrived from Europe , who supplies the Leopard with additional equipment, and the SMS Emperor Franz Joseph I , who has been relieved as a station cruiser , who starts the journey home in Qinhuangdao (Tsingwangtao); from February 22, 1909 march back the leopard to Europe, in March 15 days stay in Colombo for repairs
• 1910–1913: Deactivated in reserve, reconstruction and rearmament
• February 14 - May 15, 1915: Torpedo school training ship
• May 15, 1915 - November 4, 1918: Guard ship in defense of the Fasana Canal

• Awarded Great Britain by the Allied naval delegation in Paris at the end of January 1920 , sold to an Italian company in Messina for scrapping.

literature

• Erwin Sieche: torpedo ships and destroyers of the K. u. K. Marine (= naval arsenal with international naval news and naval overview 34). Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1996, ISBN 3-7909-0546-1 .
• 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 .

Web links

Commons : SMS Panther and SMS Leopard  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• SMS Leopard on kuk-Kriegsmarine.at