SZENT ISTVAN battleship 1915.
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:15 pm
The battleship (dreadnought) was built on the Ganz & Danubius shipyard at Fiume for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The only one of this class built on that yard.
29 January 1912 keel laid down.
17 January 1914 launched under the name SZENT ISTVÁN one of the Viribus Unitis class.
Displacement 21.689 tons standard, maximum 22.000 tons, dim. 152.2 x 27.3 x 8.9m. (draught)
Powered by 4 AEG Curtis steam turbines, 26.400 shp., four shafts, speed 20.4 knots.
Bunker capacity 900 tons normal, maximum 2.000 tons, oil and coal.
Range 4.200 miles against 10 knots.
Armament: 12 – 12.2 inch, 12 – 6inch 18 – 11pdrs. guns, 4 – 21 inch torpedo tubes, submerged.
Crew 1.094.
17 November 1915 commissioned.
She was the last vessel of this class of four ships built.
After completing she joined the First Division of it Battle Squadron of Pula, where she most of her time spent alongside the berth.
June 1918 the Austia-Hungarian Rear-Admiral Nikolaus Horthy de Nagybánya decided to use his fleet which was mostly bottled up in Pula for an operation against the Allied Otranto barrage between Italy and Albania.
09 June 1918 during the evening the SZENT ISTVÁN together with the TEGETTHOFF and one destroyer and six torpedo-boats left Pula.
The next morning off Premuda on the Dalmatian coast she were sighted by two Italian torpedo-boats under command of Cdr. Luigi Rizzo, who at once attacked the two battleships.
At around 03.30 the SZENT ISTVÁN was torpedoed in a position about 9 miles southwest of Premuda island by the MAS 15 under command of Rizzo, the MAS 21 under command of Midshipman Guiseppe Aonzo was not so lucky he missed his target the TEGETTHOFF.
The SZENT ISTVÁN was hit by two torpedoes near the boiler room, and this large room flooded quickly given the ship a large list.
The two Italian torpedo-boats managed to escape.
Only two boilers on the SZENT ISTVÁN were usable, and providing steam for the electrical generators and thereby electricity for the pumps.
First was tried to beach her on Molat island but this failed, and when the list worsened, the sign was given to abandon the vessel.
At 06.15 that day the newest Austro-Hungarian battleship capsized taking with her 89 lives.
The sinking of the SZENT ISTVÁN was filmed from the TEGETTHOFF, and there are only two films that show the loss of a battleship, the other is the loss of HMS BARHAM during World War II.
After the sinking of the SZENT ISTVÁN the action was called off, and the ships returned to Pula, till the end of World War I.
Hungary 1993 30fo sg4162, scott3409.
Sources: Register of Merchant ships completed in 1892. Dictionary of disasters at sea by Hocking. Many web-sites on the battleship. Jane’s 1914.
29 January 1912 keel laid down.
17 January 1914 launched under the name SZENT ISTVÁN one of the Viribus Unitis class.
Displacement 21.689 tons standard, maximum 22.000 tons, dim. 152.2 x 27.3 x 8.9m. (draught)
Powered by 4 AEG Curtis steam turbines, 26.400 shp., four shafts, speed 20.4 knots.
Bunker capacity 900 tons normal, maximum 2.000 tons, oil and coal.
Range 4.200 miles against 10 knots.
Armament: 12 – 12.2 inch, 12 – 6inch 18 – 11pdrs. guns, 4 – 21 inch torpedo tubes, submerged.
Crew 1.094.
17 November 1915 commissioned.
She was the last vessel of this class of four ships built.
After completing she joined the First Division of it Battle Squadron of Pula, where she most of her time spent alongside the berth.
June 1918 the Austia-Hungarian Rear-Admiral Nikolaus Horthy de Nagybánya decided to use his fleet which was mostly bottled up in Pula for an operation against the Allied Otranto barrage between Italy and Albania.
09 June 1918 during the evening the SZENT ISTVÁN together with the TEGETTHOFF and one destroyer and six torpedo-boats left Pula.
The next morning off Premuda on the Dalmatian coast she were sighted by two Italian torpedo-boats under command of Cdr. Luigi Rizzo, who at once attacked the two battleships.
At around 03.30 the SZENT ISTVÁN was torpedoed in a position about 9 miles southwest of Premuda island by the MAS 15 under command of Rizzo, the MAS 21 under command of Midshipman Guiseppe Aonzo was not so lucky he missed his target the TEGETTHOFF.
The SZENT ISTVÁN was hit by two torpedoes near the boiler room, and this large room flooded quickly given the ship a large list.
The two Italian torpedo-boats managed to escape.
Only two boilers on the SZENT ISTVÁN were usable, and providing steam for the electrical generators and thereby electricity for the pumps.
First was tried to beach her on Molat island but this failed, and when the list worsened, the sign was given to abandon the vessel.
At 06.15 that day the newest Austro-Hungarian battleship capsized taking with her 89 lives.
The sinking of the SZENT ISTVÁN was filmed from the TEGETTHOFF, and there are only two films that show the loss of a battleship, the other is the loss of HMS BARHAM during World War II.
After the sinking of the SZENT ISTVÁN the action was called off, and the ships returned to Pula, till the end of World War I.
Hungary 1993 30fo sg4162, scott3409.
Sources: Register of Merchant ships completed in 1892. Dictionary of disasters at sea by Hocking. Many web-sites on the battleship. Jane’s 1914.