SMS Zenta

**Zenta**
	SMS Zenta 1899 with light paint and still with yards for auxiliary sails
Ship data
flag	Austria-Hungary
Ship type	Small cruiser
class	Zenta class
Shipyard	kk Naval Arsenal Pola
Keel laying	August 8, 1896
Launch	August 18, 1897
Commissioning	May 25, 1899
Whereabouts	Sunk off Castellastua on August 16, 1914
Ship dimensions and crew
length	96 m ( Lüa )
width	11.3 m
Draft	Max. 4.24 m
displacement	Standard: 2524 tons
crew	292 (when commissioned)
Machine system
machine	8 Yarrow water tube boilers, 2 standing 4-cylinder 3-fold expansion machines
Machine ; performance	7200 PSi
Top ; speed	21 kn (39 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	8 × 1 Škoda 12cm-L / 40; 8 × 1 47mm-L / 44; 2 × 1 47mm-L / 33; 2 × 1 Ø 45cm torpedo tubes;

SMS Zenta was a small cruiser of the kuk Kriegsmarine and the type ship of the Zenta class . She completed several missions abroad and was sunk in a sea battle shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The cruiser was named after the Battle of Zenta in 1697.

Building history

In its overall concept, lagging behind the general development, the Austro-Hungarian Navy was forced to lay two new types of cruiser on the keel in 1896. On the one hand, this concerned the Emperor Charles VI. -Class as an armored cruiser type and the Zenta-class in an unarmored version. The Zenta class was designed by the designer Siegfried Popper , who with this ship was able to meet the requirement for a large radius of action at relatively high speed, which also meant that it met the requirements for reconnaissance and security services in overseas territories. For this purpose, a total of 586 square meters of auxiliary sails was planned, but this soon proved to be superfluous. The vital areas were protected by an arched, lightly armored upper deck, and only guns from the Škoda company were used as armament .

In contrast to the two sister ships, the steel hull of the SMS Zenta was clad with a 20 millimeter thick teak layer up to the waterline , on which plates made of so-called Muntzmetall (an alloy made of two parts copper and three parts zinc ) were placed. However, this measure increased the total tonnage by 106 ts. Although it was hoped that this would reduce the amount of work involved in maintaining the ship's hull - it was hoped that the vegetation would be reduced - this construction method has not proven itself and has no longer been used.

When Austria-Hungary laid this class on Kiel, Italy already had three, Germany six, France five and Great Britain 33 of these ships. This in turn illustrated the clumsiness and the snail-like speed with which the Austro-Hungarian administration used to work - the ships of this class were already considered obsolete when they were commissioned and should have been replaced as early as 1910. Nevertheless, they were ready for action at the beginning of the war , even if they were of little use and therefore only little involved in combat operations.

The Zenta could only be completed 17 months late because the guns intended for the ship had meanwhile been sold to Spain. The cruiser was laid down on August 8, 1896 in the Naval Arsenal in Pola , launched on August 18, 1897 and commissioned on May 25, 1899.

Calls

Boxer Rebellion

In 1900 SMS Zenta was on an extensive trip to Asia, which in January 1900 also took them to China . After the ship had visited several ports, it continued its voyage to Japan , but was ordered back to China by telegram after arriving in Sasebo in order to deploy a landing party to protect the Austro-Hungarian embassy in Beijing on the occasion of the Boxer Uprising . 30 seamen and two sea cadets led by a lieutenant were landed in the Gulf of Bohai near Hai He and arrived in Beijing on June 4th. The commandant of the Zenta , frigate captain Eduard Thomann Edler von Montalmar, had accompanied the group and was trapped with them in Beijing. Elected to head the mixed defense force made up of members of various Western nations, he was eventually killed in the following skirmishes in the Legation Quarter. Frigate Captain Skala took command of the Zenta .

At the end of June 1900, 20 Zenta crew members took part in the storming of the Taku forts . 25 men were assigned to Admiral Seymour as part of his international relief force, 40 sailors were posted to Tianjin for security .

Together with the Austro-Hungarian warships Kaiserin and Queen Maria Theresia , Kaiserin Elisabeth and the Aspern , which arrived later , around 400 army soldiers and a landing force of around 180 seamen could be sent ashore with the Zenta in September 1900.

After visiting Hong Kong and Japanese ports, the ship returned to its home port of Pola in 1901 .

Another pre-war period

In 1902 and 1903 the Zenta was sent on a commercial mission trip around Africa to South America. In 1909 she took part in the fleet demonstration in the Levant , was present in 1911 at the celebrations on the occasion of the launch of the SMS Viribus Unitis and was initially decommissioned in 1912 and transferred to the reserve.

First World War and its fall

SMS Zenta with war paint

“ SMS Zenta and SMS Ulan in action at Castellastual, Adria, on August 16, 1914 ” Painting by Harry Heusser , 1914

When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Zenta was reactivated and, together with SMS Szigetvár, deployed on patrols to enforce the blockade off the Montenegrin coast, through which the Entente wanted to supply their allies in the Balkans.

While the core of the kuk fleet was in Pola, Zenta and the torpedo boat destroyer Ulan were in action off the coast of Montenegro to cross in front of the port of Antivari . 27 km north of Antivari, Austria-Hungary maintained a naval base in Kotor , which was practically enclosed from land after the declaration of war by Montenegro. Three old ships of the line of the Monarch class and a few cruisers and destroyers had been assigned there for protection. They were assigned to take turns blocking antivari.

The French Mediterranean Fleet, under the command of Admiral Boué , had received the order to eliminate the Austro-Hungarian Navy as a threat. After the transport of the colonial troops from North Africa and the state of war with Austria-Hungary had been declared, Boué led his mixed-national fleet into the Adriatic to provoke the enemy into battle. The modern battleships Courbet and Paris led the unit, followed by ten ships of the line , an armored cruiser and two destroyer flotillas. The Royal Navy joined the fleet with the armored cruisers Defense and Warrior and four destroyers. The Austro-Hungarian liner Monarch discovered the enemy fleet on the morning of August 16 and fled with its escort ships to Kotor, but without warning the Zenta . At around 8:45 a.m. the French fleet stopped the Zenta and Ulan and began firing at them at 9:03 a.m. from a distance of 13,500 meters. Five hundred 12-inch (30.5-cm) grenades were fired at the two ships, SMS Zenta stopped after hits, and Commander Pachner gave orders to leave the ship. At 9:30 the Zenta capsized and sank, the fast Ulan was able to pull away and reached Kotor at around 10:00. 174 crew members of the SMS Zenta had been killed, 144 managed to swim to the coast of Montenegro.

Technical specifications

Water displacement: 2524.37 ts / 2631.64 ts max
Length: 96 m
Width: 11.73 m
Draft: 4.24 m
Drive: 8 Yarrow water tube boilers, 2 standing 4-cylinder 3-way expansion machines , 2 screws
Power: 7200 PSi
Top speed: 21 knots
Travel distance: 3800 nm at 12 knots
Armament: 8 × 12 cm L / 40 Skoda cannons in single mounts - 8 × 47 mm L / 44 SFK - 2 × 47 mm L / 33 SFK - 2 × 45 cm surface torpedo tubes on the side
Armor: deck 20 - 50 mm, gun shields 45 mm, command tower 50 mm, gun bay 35 mm
Crew: 292 men

literature

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 .
Christian Ortner : “With SMS Zenta in China. Death didn't want me this time either ... ". From the diary of an Austro-Hungarian sailor during the Boxer Rebellion , Mittler & Sohn publishing house , Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7046-1586-2

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Laibacher Zeitung No. 181 of August 9, 1900
^ Rebellion against foreign devils , in: Der Spiegel, December 31, 1979
↑ Laibacher Zeitung No. 144 of June 26, 1900
↑ Laibacher Zeitung No. 209 of September 13, 1900
↑ Lawrence Sondhaus: The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War , Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-03690-1 , page 129
^ Spence C. Tucker: " World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection ", ISBN 978-1-85109964-1 , ABC Clio, p. 116

[Laibacher090800-1] Laibacher Zeitung No. 181 of August 9, 1900

[2] Rebellion against foreign devils , in: Der Spiegel, December 31, 1979

[3] Laibacher Zeitung No. 144 of June 26, 1900

[4] Laibacher Zeitung No. 209 of September 13, 1900

[5] Lawrence Sondhaus: The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War , Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-03690-1 , page 129

[6] Spence C. Tucker: " World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection ", ISBN 978-1-85109964-1 , ABC Clio, p. 116