SMS magnet
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|---|---|
 The kuk SMS Magnet |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Torpedo gunboat , destroyer |
| Shipyard |
Schichau-Werke , Elbing |
| Keel laying | September 14, 1895 |
| Launch | March 21, 1896 |
| delivery | July 5, 1896 |
| Decommissioning | 1918 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
485 t, maximum 544 t |
| length |
71.0 m |
| width |
8.20 m |
| Draft |
3.30 m |
| crew |
80 men |
| drive |
4 Thornycroft-Schulz water tube boilers , |
| speed |
25.97 kn |
| Range |
4000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
6 × 47 mm Skoda L / 44 rapid fire guns, |
| Coal supply |
105 t |
The torpedo cannon boat SMS Magnet , ordered from Schichau in 1895, was the fastest boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy when it was delivered . The Magnet differed significantly from the four "torpedo ships" delivered by Schichau up to that point (three of the Meteor class and the single boat SMS Satellite ). She was the only boat that came with two chimneys. She remained a single boat with a similar combat strength as the six "torpedo ships" delivered before her. The Magnet remained in service in coastal defense until 1918.
Building history
The Austro-Hungarian Navy began placing orders for torpedo boats for coastal defense in 1885. The first contractor was F. Schichau in Elbing , which in 1886 delivered the first boats of this 78 t displacement type with SMS Sperber and Habicht . In 1888 and 1889 five more boats of this type from Schichau followed, 15 of which were also reproduced in Austria. Similar to the so-called “division torpedo boats” in Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Navy ordered the three boats of the 360-tonne Meteor class as “torpedo ships” from Schichau at about the same time . However, other applicants were also considered here. In 1891 the SMS satellite with twin screw drive was ordered from Schichau.
In 1895 the Austro-Hungarian Navy gave Schichau an order for torpedo boats for the last time. Under hull number 596 the torpedo cannon boat magnet of 485 t and under hull number 597 the torpedo boat Natter of 134 t. Both remained single boats. Schichau supplied both boats with similar types to other navies. The Austro-Hungarian Navy procured new units for their torpedo weapons based on British models (torpedo boats of the Cobra and Kaiman classes , later destroyers of the Huszár class ).
The Magnet had modern water tube boilers of the Thornycroft-Schulz design , which worked with a pressure of up to 14 atm. The two 3-cylinder triple expansion machines had an output of up to 5776 PSi. During her official inspection run, the Magnet reached 25.97 knots and significantly exceeded the contractually required speed of 24.25 knots. With a coal supply of 105 t, the new boat should be able to travel 4000 nm at 10 kn.
The boat was armed with six 47 mm L / 44 Skoda rapid-fire guns, which were positioned on the foredeck, to the side of the bridge, to the side of the rear funnel and far back on the stern. These guns corresponded to the models used on their predecessors. The torpedo tubes were 45 cm in caliber; the torpedo armament consisted of two rotatable tubes on the side behind the bridge and one tube on the quarterdeck.
On July 5, 1896, the Magnet was taken over and on the 14th began her transfer to the Mediterranean in Pillau . On the 16th the boat reached Kiel and ran via Gibraltar (22nd - 26th) and Corfu (30th July - 1st August ) to the Austrian naval port Pola , where she entered on August 2nd, 1896. The arrived boat was put into service on August 4th and the equipment of the boat (weapons) in the arsenal there was completed.
Mission history
SMS Magnet , which arrived in Pola in August 1896, began its acceptance tests with full equipment in March 1897, in which it achieved 25.35 knots and only generated a relatively small bow wave even at top speed. However, the decks in the area of the guns had to be reinforced and there was also an initial boiler damage. In September, the repairs and reworking were completed and on November 26, 1897 the boat was put into service to be used in the intervention squadron off Crete.
Operation in front of Crete
The magnetic relocated from 26 November 1897 (20) as the last unit nor the intervention squadron that was slowly disintegrating. The torpedo ships Blitz and Satellit were withdrawn at about the same time. The Magnet reached the Suda Bay via Teodo and Corfu on December 3rd, where the remaining Austrian ships were assembled.
The flagship of the Austrian intervention association was meanwhile the new coastal armored ship SMS Wien . In addition there were the protected cruiser Kaiser Franz Joseph I , the torpedo cruisers Tiger and Leopard , the torpedo cannon boats Blitz and Satellit as well as the torpedo boat Star and the workshop ship Cyclop .
The Magnet visited Smyrna from February 18-28 , 1898 , before leaving the Cretan waters on April 12th. They and the flagship Vienna were the last units withdrawn after the steamer Aurora (1869, 1825 BRT) had taken the Austrian land contingent (II./IR 87) back on board and arrived in Pola with the troop transport on April 16.
Further usage and modifications
After the mission in Crete, the boat became the flagship of the torpedo boat flotilla and took part in the usual maneuvers. In June 1899 it was put into reserve and in 1900 the boilers were overhauled.
From April 7, 1901, the Magnet moved together with the Planet via Patras to Constantinople . Since the beginning of May in the Turkish capital, the boats made a cruise to the Dardanelles and the northern Aegean Sea in the first half of August . Returning to Constantinople in mid-August, both boats began their return journey on September 4th, which was to take two months. They ran along the coast of Asia Minor and Syria to Beirut and then back to Pola via Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete and the western Greek and Albanian coasts until October 2nd. On this return voyage, the Magnet called at fifteen ports.
In 1902 the boat took part in the usual maneuvers, during which landing exercises also took place in the presence of the emperor. In 1903 he participated in a naval voyage from March 31 to June 2 in a squadron with the Habsburg ship of the line and the coastal armored ships Vienna and Budapest . There were longer stays from March 9th to 19th in Piraeus , from March 1st to 13th in Saloniki , where the Wien was left as a station ship, and in Smyrna from May 21st to 26th. In December 1903 the Magnet decommissioned and was assigned to the reserve. It was not until June 1907 that the boat was put back into service to take part in the summer maneuvers. During the time in reserve, the boilers and drive shafts had been replaced. The following year the boat was also in service during the summer maneuvers. On April 23, 1909, the magnet left with the armored cruiser Emperor Karl VI. and the cruiser Zenta Pola to take part in an international fleet demonstration against Turkey. The magnet and emperor Karl VI. remained in Piraeus, reached on May 2, while the Zenta was detached to the coast of Asia Minor. The units remaining in Piraeus started their journey home via Kefalonia on June 5th and returned to Pola on June 10th with the Zenta, who had returned to the association .
The new stationing location for the Magnet was Lussin on December 1, 1909 . In March 1910 the boat was made available to the Saxon King Friedrich August and made a trip with him from Abbaziao around the Istrian peninsula to Trieste . In September 1911 the boat was decommissioned. This was followed by a major overhaul with replacement of the boiler, careful overhaul of the machines and an extension of the bridge.
In August 1912 the boat was put back into service and still stationed in Lussin. In June 1913 the Magnet moved to the Albanian coast. From October to mid-December, the boat was stationed in the capital of the new state of Albania , Valona , from where she also visited Brindisi , Italy . Then the Magnet returned to the Lussin site.
War effort
At the beginning of the war in 1914, the Magnet went to the Porto Ré shipyard for a brief overhaul and was used to secure the Dalmatian coast from September. In November it docked in Pola, where it was equipped with a radio system and other superstructures.
In 1915 she was moved back to Lussin and primarily searched for enemy submarines . In June she was involved in the search for the Italian airship M 2 Cittá di Ferrara of the Forlanini type , which was set on fire by the Lohner flying boat L 48 over the island of Asinello , from whose crew of nine the kuk torpedo boat TB 4 rescued seven men and captured them unharmed while 2 men died. On July 30, 1916, the Italian submarine Giacinto Pullino ran aground in strong currents and bad weather near the small Dalmatian island of Galiola . After all attempts at liberation had failed, the crew tried to sink the boat and escape to Italy. The crew and the separately escaping navigation officer of the submarine, Nazario Sauro , an Istrian who had volunteered for the service of the Italians at the beginning of the war, were captured by the Austrian destroyer SMS satellite . As an Austrian citizen, Sauro was executed on August 10th. The Austrians tried to salvage the wrecked submarine at the same time. Lifted with a rope between two pontoons, attempts were made to tow the pontoons and the damaged submarine to Pola. The bandage was secured by the magnet and the torpedo boat TB 4 . However, the connection between the pontoons at Cabo Promontore that carried the submarine tore and the Giacinto Pullino sank in deep water. On the morning of August 2, 1916, the Italian submarine torpedoed Salpa the magnet on the march back to Lussin. One of the four torpedoes fired at her hit, destroyed the stern and tore the boat open until the officers' mess. In the torpedo hit, eleven men were killed immediately and seven others were seriously injured. The magnet remained buoyant and could finally be brought to Pola. She was the victim of the only successful Italian submarine attack on a warship during World War I. The Salpa had been sent to the sea area to search for the Giacinto Pullino and, if necessary, to destroy the boat so as not to let it fall into the hands of the Austrians. The magnet was repaired by December 21st , with the severely damaged stern being partially removed. The boat was about 3 m shorter and now had a rounded stern, like the destroyer built according to a Yarrow design instead of the long and very pointed stern typical of Schichau boats. At the same time the guns were renewed and now 7 cm L / 15 Skoda guns were installed on the side of the bridge. In the sea test carried out, the old destroyer still reached 20.23 knots.
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On December 23, 1916 the boat went back to its old station in Lussin. The main task was the escort service along the coast and the defense against Allied submarines, attacking and firing at submarines several times. From the end of November 1917 to the beginning of February 1918 the boat was used between Trieste and Pola before it was moved to Lussin until the end of the war. On August 11, 1918, the Magnet rescued around 450 men from the Euterpe troop transport (2302 GRT). The Austrian Lloyd ship, built by Thompson in Sunderland in 1886 , had been in service as an armed troop transport between Fiume and Cattaro since May . On the morning of August 11, it was torpedoed by the Italian submarine F 7 about one and a half nautical miles off St. Vito on the island of Pago . 453 men died in the sinking of the Euterpe . The Magnet was assisted in the rescue by the torpedo boats TB-55 and TB-64 of the Kaiman class . Another seven castaways later took on the British submarine HMS C21 .
Final fate of the magnet
The SMS Magnet was awarded to Italy in 1920, delivered, but immediately canceled.
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 | 06/24/1893 | 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 |
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
- Torpedo ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (accessed on April 27, 2012; PDF; 1.3 MB)
- SMS magnet on kuk-kriegsmarine (accessed on 10 May 2012)
- Side elevation of the magnet on blueprints (accessed May 10, 2012)
- Information about the magnet on homepages (accessed on May 11, 2012)
- Cracks of the magnet after 1916 on homepages (accessed on May 11, 2012)
- Magnet model (accessed May 10, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ^ Pangerl, p. 120
- ^ The destruction of the Italian airship Cittá di Ferrara
- ↑ The Giacinto Pullino was the type ship of two coastal submarines, launched on July 21, 1913, 355/405 t, lost on the 32nd mission
- ↑ The Salpa was a Medusa- class coastal submarine , launched on May 14, 1912, 248/355 t, 65 missions by 1917, broken up in 1918
- ↑ The F 7 was a coastal submarine of the F-Class developed from the Medusa , launched on December 23, 1916, 262/319 t, deleted in 1929