SMS Panther (1885)

SMS Panther , 1906
Overview
Type	Torpedo cruiser
units	Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. , Elswick , Building N ° 480
Keel laying	October 19, 1884
Launch	June 13, 1885
Commissioning	December 31, 1885
Whereabouts	1920 demolition in Italy
Technical specifications
displacement	1552 ts, max. 1730 ts
length	72.85 m over everything, 68.28 m pp
width	10.36 m
Draft	4.28 m
crew	150-198 men
drive	4 double-ended cylinder boilers , 2 compound machines , 2 shafts, 6,195 PSi
speed	19.04 kn
Range	3780 nm at 10 kn (332 t coal)
Armament	2 × 12 cm L / 35 Krupp cannon 4 × 47 mm L / 33 cannon 6 × 47 mm revolver cannon 4 × 350 mm torpedo tube
Armament from 1909	4 × 7 cm L / 45 cannon 10 × 47 mm L / 44 Skoda cannon (since 1891) 3 × 350 mm torpedo tube
Coal supply	150 ts, max. 338 ts
Armor deck	12 to 50 mm
Sister ship	SMS Leopard
similar	SMS Tiger

The SMS Panther was a torpedo cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the lead ship of this class, to which the SMS  Leopard still belonged, both of which were built in Great Britain at the Armstrong shipyard in Elswick. The SMS  Tiger built domestically in Trieste was similar . Initially classified as a "torpedo ship", from 1909 it was considered a "small cruiser". The SMS Panther , mainly used as a torpedo boat driver  , also made some trips abroad and at the beginning of the First World War was still actively used to combat land targets on the Montenegrin front. At the beginning of 1917 it was dismantled and only served as a living and training ship. In 1920 the SMS Panther , which had been delivered to the Allies, was broken off 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 take over armed reconnaissance and patrols. A water displacement of around 1560 ts and a top speed of 18 to 19 knots were required. 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 the United Kingdom. After five offers had been obtained through the kuk naval attaché Baron von Haan in London , the order for the construction of two first class torpedo ships was given to the company Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. , which operates the ships at its new warship yard in Elswick near Newcastle upon Tyne built. The Panther was the first warship to be launched at the new shipyard; it was given the hull number 480. The "torpedo cruisers" were designed on September 18, 1884 by William Henry White , from 1885 to 1902 'Director of Naval Construction' of the Royal Navy .

The steel hulls had a displacement of 1,552 ts (maximum up to 1730 ts) with a length of 239 ft. (72.85 m), a hull width of 10.36 m and a draft of 4.4 m on completion. Two standing 2-cylinder compound machines with four double-ended cylinder tanks served as drive, which gave the Panther a speed of up to 19.4 knots .
The supervising kuk shipbuilding engineer Siegfried Popper , later the general shipbuilding engineer of the Austrian fleet, discovered during inspections that the 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 conversions (weight shifts) were carried out in order to reduce the bow-heaviness. It was then 0.75 meters.

The armament consisted initially of two 12-cm-L35 / C80-guns of Krupp with round wedge closure on a front pivot -Ausrennlafette, four 47-mm-L / 33-rapid fire guns, six 47-mm Hotchkiss - revolver cannon and four individual 350 mm torpedo tubes (one tube each in the bow, in the stern - both rigid -, port and starboard - movable). As early as 1891, the old 47 mm guns were replaced by ten 47 mm L / 44 rapid fire guns of the Skoda type . In 1909 a modernization took place in which the armament of the panthers 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 Panther was used as the lead ship of a torpedo flotilla. From May 1896 to February 1898, the ship's first major foreign deployment to East Asia took place.

In 1903 it was reclassified to cruiser III. Class and from January 1905 to December 1906 another assignment abroad to East Africa, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia. In 1909 the SMS Panther was reclassified to a small cruiser after modernization and rearmament. From August 1909 to November 1910, the Panther made one last big trip abroad to East Asia.

Trips, missions, whereabouts

• January 15 - February 6, 1886 Transfer from North Shields to Trieste with a visit to Lisbon
• June 2, 1886 final inspection run, achieved 19.4 kn
• May 5 - June 5, 1887 Participation in the summer maneuvers of the fleet
• April 25 - May 27, 1888: Accompanied by the kuk Eskadre with the sister ship Leopard at the World Exhibition in Barcelona , after returning on June 25, ran aground off Badia , Dalmatia; the commandant, Count Rudolf Montecuccoli , who later became the naval commander, received a severe reprimand and had to pay for the damage
• June 12 - July 15, 1889 Participation in the fleet's summer maneuvers
• 1891 Replacement of the old 47 mm guns for more modern 47 mm L / 44 rapid fire guns
• 1894 Replacement of the 12 cm cannons 12 cm / L35 Krupp rapid fire guns
• May 1895 Participation in the summer maneuvers of the fleet
• May 1, 1896 - February 28, 1898: First long trip abroad to East Asia under Carl Edler von Koppel through the Suez Canal, via Massaua and in very bad weather from Aden to Bombay ; between Hong Kong and Shanghai in early August in a typhoon with minor damage; visits to Korea, Vladivostok (August 27 to September 7), Tsingtau , Weihaiwei , Yantai , Lüshunkou ; from mid-October visit to Japanese ports; At the end of January 1897 via Manila and Bangkok to Singapore , where the Panther docks before it runs off the Chinese coast again, at the beginning of May 1897 the crew is exchanged with SMS Emperor Franz Joseph I in Yantai / Tschifu; renewed visits to Korea and Vladivostok; from mid-September overhaul of Yokohama , Friedrich Freiherr takes over command of the Panthers for the sick commander , from the beginning of October march back from Hong Kong, on February 26, 1898 return to Pola after 37,700 nautical miles over 69 stages.
• 1899: temporary decommissioning
• 1900: Return to service, participation in the fleet's summer maneuvers
• 1901: Participation in the fleet's summer maneuvers
• January 26th - February 26th, 1902: Journey to Rabat to bring the Ambassador, Count Folliot de Crenneville , who had been admitted to Gibraltar, to negotiate with the Sultan of Morocco , later to participate in the summer maneuvers of the fleet
• 1903: in reserve
• 1904: repairs for foreign use, new chimneys,
• January 15, 1905 - December 22, 1906: Second big trip abroad under Ludwig von Höhnel to Ethiopia (commandant visits Addis Ababa and Emperor Menelik II from February 4 to April 10 ), the ship commuting between Aden and Djibouti encounters parts of the Baltic fleet en route to Japan; via Colombo and Batavia to Fremantle , Australia , via other ports to Brisbane and from there to Auckland , New Zealand (25 September); via Nouméa , Thursday Island and Makassar to Singapore and then to East Asia (January 2, 1906 in Hong Kong), 2. – 17. June Visit to the German base in Tsingtau , return to Europe from Hong Kong on October 22nd, arrival in Pola on December 20th. Decommissioned on the 22nd

1907 to Trieste for repairs, two short trips with Archduchess Maria Josepha , from 1908 to March 1909 the armament was converted

• August 16, 1909 - November 15, 1910 last big trip abroad to East Asia, at the end of October 1909 an exchange of crew with the SMS Empress Elisabeth , from September 28, 1910 march back from Hong Kong to Europe
• 1911–1913: Station ship in Trieste
• from the end of December 1913 deployment off the Albanian coast until the outbreak of war
• 1914: Relocated to the Bay of Kotor at the beginning of the war
• September 9, 1914: In association with the cruisers SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I. and SMS Kaiser Karl VI. Bombardment of the Lovćen batteries
• 8th-9th January 1916: In association with SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I, the Lovcen batteries are bombarded again
• February 15, 1917: Disarmed, houseboat of the Gjenovic submarine station on the Bay of Kotor
• May 6, 1917: Relocation to Pola
• May 29, 1917: Return to service as a seagoing training ship
• October 1918: decommissioned

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

literature

• Peter Brook: Warships for Export. Armstrong Warships, 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
• 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 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 .

Web links

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

• SMS Panther on kuk-Kriegsmarine.at
• Side view of the panther

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brook, p. 160