SMS Novara (1850)
 Riss (1857–59) from Scherzer's publication (English)
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The SMS Novara was an Austrian frigate that gained international fame due to its circumnavigation (1857-1859). The ship was rebuilt twice in the course of its service life, the second conversion carried out from 1860 to 1862 being very extensive. The ship took part in the naval battle at Lissa in 1866 after a serious second conversion to a steam sailor and was scrapped in 1898 after various uses.
history
Construction and naming
.jpg)
When the keel was laid on September 20, 1843, the ship, built according to the plans of the Venetian shipbuilding director Giuseppe Paresi , was to be called Minerva . In the course of the revolution of 1848, the arsenal and the unfinished hull came into Italian hands, and initially the hull was continued to be built as L'Italia . Radetzky's victory at Novara and the capitulation of Venice in 1849 ultimately gave the ship its name, which had returned to Austrian ownership.
The figurehead was a winged Nike by Luigi Rizzotti . The ship was only put into service as fully seaworthy in June 1851, although it was launched on November 4, 1850. The Novara was considered to be very seaworthy (according to some statements "the most seaworthy") sailing ship of the Imperial and Royal Navy. At that time, however, sailors were already considered obsolete in the navy.
The circumnavigation
The ship was rebuilt in 1856 for the planned trip around the world: the deckhouse was enlarged and a library was set up on the battery deck, for which a skylight had to be cut into the deck . The gaff sails on the cross mast and the " Schnaumasten " of the main and foremast have been removed to make the ship more manageable for expected heavy weather.
The 42 cannons provided by the designer were reduced to 30 for the circumnavigation of the world, 12 of them on the upper deck. When "Boot guns" there was a twelve and a six-pounders, two further einpfündige swivels . It is remarkable that for the first time drinking water was not stored in barrels, as it used to be, but in iron containers, which resulted in an increased capacity of around 20% with the same space requirement. A “newfangled” distillation apparatus for extracting drinking water from sea water was also in operation, but could not entirely cover the daily requirement of a good 1100 liters.
The douche apparatus set up for the crews on the forepeak was little used; the long-known fire engines were still preferred for body cleansing.
Canned meat and vegetables from French production were also on board, as well as Kondrauer mineral water from Waldsassen , Upper Palatinate, which Scherzer expressly mentions. The "equator wine" from the Schlumberger company does not appear at Scherzer, but in letters from the crew members.
However, it was extremely cramped during the world tour. As on other sailors from the navy at the time, there would not have been enough space to hang up hammocks for the entire crew: we slept in rotation.
Reconstruction of the ship in 1860/62
_figurehead.jpg)
At the instigation of Archduke Maximilian , the ship was rebuilt from 1861 to 1862. This conversion to a screw frigate took place after the return of the ship, which was officially approved as "in good condition" on September 12, 1859, and was quite extensive. Therefore it is sometimes seen as a new building.
The hull of the Novara was cut in the middle and stretched 12 feet with a newly inserted piece to make room for the steam engine. The bow and stern were dismantled and rebuilt and also extended. The figurehead was also exchanged during the renovation and replaced by a trumpeting female figure in armor from the hand of a certain Andrea Gregorich.
Use in later years
As a screw frigate, the ship led Archduke Maximilian to Veracruz , where he was crowned Emperor of Mexico. In 1866 the Novara was involved in the naval battle of Lissa together with a formation led by Anton von Petz , in which its commander, Erik Klingt, was killed. In the following years the ship made several trips to the Atlantic. At the end of 1867 it brought the body of Emperor Maximilian, who was executed on June 19, 1867, back home.
The Novara was launched as a Hulk from September 1876 and was last used as a training ship and later as a residential ship in Pola . In 1898 the ship was decommissioned and scrapped.
Museum reception
Several paintings by Novara are on display in the Marines Hall of the Army History Museum in Vienna . What is particularly noteworthy, however, is the model of the Novara on a scale of 1:75 as well as numerous objects, representations and maps related to the ship.
literature
- Renate Basch-Ritter : "The circumnavigation of the Novara 1857-1859". Academic Printing and Publishing Company , Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-201-01904-0
- Wilhelm Donko: “An Austrian View of the Philippines. The Austrian Scientist Karl von Scherzer on his visit in Manila aboard the frigate "Novara" in June 1858 ”. Verlag epubli.de, Berlin 2012, 176 pp., ISBN 978-3-8442-1603-5 .
- Roswitha Karpf (Ed.): On the way to distant shores. The circumnavigation of the “Novara” (1857–1859) and the transoceanic voyage of the “Saida” (1884–1886) . University Library, Graz 2001 (book accompanying the exhibition of the same name).
- Karl Scherzer : The circumnavigation of the "Novara" 1857–59 . Edited, edited and commented on by Günter Zeiten. Molden, Vienna et al. 1973, ISBN 3-217-00543-0 .
- Friedrich Wallisch : His ship was called Novara. Bernhard von Wüllerstorf , admiral and minister . Herold, Vienna 1966.
- David GL Weiss , Gerd Schilddorfer: Novara - Austria's dream of world power. Amalthea, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85002-705-2 .
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e f data: New York Times, April 26, 1871; original information in feet. Source: Michael Organ, University of Wollongong, Australia. See web link.
- ↑ Hochstetter is also the only one to report the existence of two other six-pounders
- ↑ Lit. Weiss / Schilddorfer p. 109.
- ↑ At that time there were still fears that "crossing the line" would damage food, for example turning wine into vinegar, which did not occur on the Novara , which crossed the equator six times during this journey.
- ↑ The ship is painted here in white, i. H. already retired from active service, but serves as accommodation. The recording was accordingly made after around 1895.
- ↑ It is sometimes claimed that the Archduke completed part of his own training on this ship, but it is neither verifiable nor likely from official documents.
- ↑ According to Lit. Weiss / Schilddorfer, only two frames remained from the original. The authors assume that the new version was only declared as a conversion, because the Kaiser, who was not very fond of the navy, would hardly have approved funds for a new building at that time.
- ↑ von Kronenfels, JF: The floating fleet material of the sea powers . A brief description of the major European, American, and Asian warships of recent and recent times. 1st edition. A. Hartleben's publishing house, Vienna. Pest. Leipzig 1881, p. 435 .
- ^ Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 153
Web links
- The Austrian Frigate SMS Novara Comprehensive website by Michael Organ, University of Wollongong .