SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
 SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand on gunnery trials in 1908
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Austria-Hungary | |
| Name | SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand |
| Namesake | Archduke Franz Ferdinand |
| Owner | Austro-Hungarian Navy |
| Builder | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino |
| Laid down | 12 September 1907 |
| Launched | 8 September 1908 |
| Commissioned | 5 June 1910 |
| Fate | Ceded to Italy |
 Italy | |
| Decommissioned | 1926 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1926 |
| General characteristics [1][2][3] | |
| Class and type | Radetzky-class battleship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 137.5 m (451 ft 1 in) |
| Beam | 24.6 m (80 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power | 19,800 ihp (14,765 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph) |
| Range | 4,000 nmi (7,408 km; 4,603 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 890 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand , and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets.
She participated in an international naval protest of the
Construction
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino dockyard in Trieste. She was laid down on 12 September 1907 and launched from the slipway on 8 September 1908.[1] The teak used on her deck was the only material Austria-Hungary purchased abroad to build her.[4] A month and a half after her launch, she was towed to the harbor in Muggia for completion. During a severe storm that night, she broke loose from her moorings; with no crewmen aboard, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand drifted for several hours before running aground just off Izola. The following morning, the navy located her and started to refloat her.[5] Completion was delayed by a welders' strike in 1908 and a riveters' strike in 1909.[6] Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the first ship of the class to be completed,[7] and she was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 June 1910.[1]
At 137.5 m (451 ft 1 in) long, with a
The ship's primary armament consisted of four 30.5 cm (12 in) 45-caliber guns in two twin gun turrets.[2][3] Eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four wing turrets formed the heavy secondary battery.[3] The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm (3.9 in) L/50 guns in casemated single mounts and four 47 mm (1.9 in) L/44 guns.[3] After 1916–17 refits four Škoda 7 cm K16 anti-aircraft guns were installed.[9] Three 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes were also carried, two on the beam and one in the stern.[1]
Service history
The ship was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian fleet's 1st Battle Squadron after her 1910 commissioning. In 1912, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her two sister ships conducted two training cruises into the eastern Mediterranean Sea.[1] On the second cruise into the Aegean Sea, conducted from November to December, she was accompanied by the cruiser Admiral Spaun and a pair of destroyers. After returning to Pola, the entire fleet mobilized for possible hostilities, as tensions flared in the Balkans.[10]
The following year, she participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the Balkan Wars.[11] Ships from other navies included the British pre-dreadnought HMS King Edward VII, the Italian pre-dreadnought Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, the French armoured cruiser Edgar Quinet, and the German light cruiser SMS Breslau.[12] The most important action of the combined flotilla, which was under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney, was to blockade the Montenegrin coast. The goal of the blockade was to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari,[13] where Montenegro had besieged a combined force of Albanians and Ottomans. Pressured by the international blockade, Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari, which was subsequently occupied by a joint Allied ground force.[14]
The first seaplanes used in combat, supplied by French manufacturer Donnet-Lévêque, were operated from Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her two sisters during the blockade. However, the Austro-Hungarian Navy was not satisfied with the operation, as the ships lacked enough deck space for the planes, as well as a lack of cranes with which they could easily hoist the planes onto the decks. The planes were later moved to a hangar at the navy yard in Teodo.[14] By 1913, the four new dreadnoughts of the Tegetthoff class—the only dreadnoughts built for the fleet—were coming into active service. With the commissioning of these dreadnoughts, the navy shifted Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her sisters to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.[15]
World War I
The ship was named after
On 23 May 1915, between two and four hours after the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola,
The objective of the bombardment of Ancona was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria-Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems.[19] The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps for two weeks. This delay gave Austria-Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re-deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts.[23]
The only damage in the ensuing days to Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand appears to have been after the battleships returned to Pola. A collision occurred between the ship and an unknown Austro-Hungarian destroyer on 30 May, while both were attempting to avoid an aerial bombardment from an Italian airship; the destroyer sank.[24] [d]
Aside from the attack on Ancona, the Austro-Hungarian battleships were confined to Pola for the duration of the war.
Postwar fate
According to the terms of the
Notes
Footnotes
- Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. "Erzherzog" means "Archduke".
- Pre-Dreadnought battleship rather than later Post-Dreadnoughtbattleships.
- ^ There is some debate on when the fleet departed Pola. Halpern states that it was four hours until the fleet set sail while Sokol claims that the fleet left Pola two hours after the declaration reached Admiral Haus.
- ^ While the New York Times stated that the unnamed ship was a destroyer, there are no other records of an Austro-Hungarian destroyer being sunk in May 1915.
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g Sieche, p. 332.
- ^ a b c d Sokol, p. 151.
- ^ a b c d e Ireland, p. 12.
- ^ a b Sondhaus, p. 211.
- ^ The New York Times & 23 October 1908.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 181.
- ^ Koburger, p. 25.
- ^ Sokol, p. 69.
- OCLC 786178793.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 207.
- ^ a b c Hore, Battleships of World War I, p. 84.
- ^ Vego, p. 151.
- ^ Vego, pp. 151–152.
- ^ a b Vego, p. 152.
- ^ Sieche, pp. 332–333.
- ^ Albertini, p. 460.
- ^ Halpern, p. 54.
- ^ Halpern, p. 144.
- ^ a b Sokol, p. 107.
- ^ DANFS Zrínyi.
- ^ Sokol, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Hore, Battleships, p. 180.
- ^ Sokol, p. 109.
- ^ The New York Times & 7 June 1915.
- ^ Miller, p. 396.
- ^ Halpern, p. 140.
- ^ Halpern, p. 141.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 357.
- ^ Koburger, p. 121.
References
- Albertini, Luigi (1980). Origins of the War of 1914. Vol. 2. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 6144049.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 57447525.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. OCLC 77797289.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships. London: Lorena Books. OCLC 56458155.
- OCLC 35900130.
- Koburger, Charles (2001). The Central Powers in the Adriatic, 1914–1918: War in a Narrow Sea. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. OCLC 50321762.
- Miller, Francis Trevelyan (1916). The Story of the Great War. New York, NY: P.F. Collier & Son. OCLC 14157413.
- Sieche, Erwin (1985). "Austria-Hungary". In Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
- Sokol, Anthony (1968). The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. OCLC 462208412.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. OCLC 28112077.
- Vego, Milan N. (1996). Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904–14. London: Frank Cass Publishers. OCLC 560641850.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1848321007.
Other sources
- "Austrian Battleship Ashore". The New York Times. 23 October 1908. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
- "Austrians Lose a Destroyer". The New York Times. 7 June 1915. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- "Zrínyi". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Archived from the original on 5 April 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2010.