 A painting showing SMSWien and the other ships of theMonarch class on maneuvers | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Austro-Hungarian Empire | |
| Name | SMSWien |
| Namesake | Vienna,Austria |
| Ordered | May 1892 |
| Builder | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino,Trieste |
| Laid down | 16 February 1893 |
| Launched | 7 July 1895 |
| Sponsored by | Countess Kielmannsegg |
| Commissioned | 13 May 1897 |
| Fate | Sunk, 10 December 1917, salvaged and scrapped 1920s |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Monarch-classcoastal defense ship |
| Displacement | 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) (full load) |
| Length | 99.22 m (325 ft 6 in) |
| Beam | 17 m (55 ft 9 in) |
| Draught | 6.4 m (21 ft 0 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 17.5knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) |
| Range | 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) @ 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement | 26 officers and 397 enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
SMSWien [a] ("His Majesty's Ship Vienna") was one of threeMonarch-classcoastal defense ships built for theAustro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After her commissioning, the ship participated in aninternational blockade ofCrete during theGreco-Turkish War of 1897.Wien and the two otherMonarch-class ships made several training cruises in theMediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. They formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissionedHabsburg-classpredreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed inreserve and only recommissioned for annual summer training exercises. After the start ofWorld War I,Wien was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.
The division was sent toCattaro in August 1914 to attackMontenegrin and French artillery that was bombarding the port and they remained there until mid-1917.Wien and her sisterBudapest were sent toTrieste in August 1917 and bombarded Italian fortifications in theGulf of Trieste. On the night of 9–10 December, whileWien andBudapest were at anchor in Trieste, twoItaliantorpedo boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected and fired several torpedoes at the two ships.Budapest was not hit, butWien was struck by two torpedoes and sank in less than five minutes with the loss of 46 of her crew. The wreck wassalvaged sometime during the 1920s by the Italians.
At only 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) maximum displacement,[1] theMonarch class was less than half the size of thebattleships of other major navies at the time[2] and were officially designated as coast defense ships.[3] The Austro-Hungarian government believed that the role of its navy was solely to defend her coast.[2]
Wien had anoverall length of 99.22 meters (325 ft 6 in), abeam of 17 meters (55 ft 9 in) and adraft of 6.4 meters (21 ft 0 in).[3] Her two 4-cylindervertical triple-expansion steam engines produced a total of 8,500indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) using steam from five cylindricalboilers. These gave the ship a maximum speed of 17.5knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph).Wien's maximum load of 500 metric tons (490 LT) of coal gave her a range of 3,500nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). She was manned by 26 officers and 397 enlisted men, a total of 423 personnel.[4]
The armament of theMonarch class consisted offour 240-millimeter (9.4 in)Krupp K/94 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of thesuperstructure. The ships carried 80 rounds for each gun. Theirsecondary armament was six150-millimeter (5.9 in)Škoda guns located incasemates in the superstructure. Defense againsttorpedo boats was provided by tenquick-firing (QF)47 mm (1.9 in) Škoda guns and four 47-millimeter QFHotchkiss guns. The ships also mounted two 450-millimeter (18 in)torpedo tubes, one on eachbroadside. Each torpedo tube was provided with twotorpedoes.[4] In 1917 aŠkoda 7 cm K10anti-aircraft gun was installed.[5][6]
The ship's nickel-steelwaterlinearmor belt was 120–270 millimeters (4.7–10.6 in) thick and thegun turrets were protected by 250 millimeters (9.8 in) of armor. Thecasemates had 80 millimeters (3.1 in) thick sides while theconning tower had 220 millimeters (8.7 in) of armor.Wien'sdeck armor was 40 millimeters (1.6 in) thick.[7]
TheMonarch-class ships were ordered in May 1892[8] withBudapest andWien to be built at theStabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard inTrieste. Both ships werelaid down on 16 February 1893, the first ships in the class to be laid down.[3]Wien was launched on 7 July 1895 by Countess Kielmannsegg, wife of the Governor ofLower Austria, and commissioned on 13 May 1897.[9]
After her commissioning,Wien took part inQueen Victoria'sDiamond JubileeInternational Fleet Review atSpithead on 26 June 1897, as well as aninternational blockade of Crete during theGreco-Turkish War of 1897. She was back atPola on 16 April 1898.Wien and her sisters formed the Navy's 1st Capital Ship Division (I. Schwere Divisio) in 1899 and the division made a training cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean where they made port visits in Greece, Lebanon, Turkey andMalta later that year. In early 1902 they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy,Corfu, andAlbania. The ship was fitted with aSiemens-Braun radio early the following year. The ships of the division were inspected byArchduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, in March 1903 atGravosa. Shortly afterwards,Wien,Budapest, the battleshipHabsburg and thedestroyerMagnet made a cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean.Wien served asflagship of the division until she was posted atSalonica in the Ottoman Empire on 13 May to support Austro-Hungarian interests there after several terrorist acts against Austro-Hungarian citizens. She returned to Pola on 10 June and resumed her assignment as flagship. In 1904, theMonarch-class ships formed the 2nd Capital Ship Division[10] and they took part in the 1904 cruise of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas as well as training exercises in which the threeHabsburg-class battleships engaged theBudapest and her sisters in simulated combat. Those maneuvers marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.[11] In 1905,Wien made a cruise of theLevant and visited ports in Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and Albania. Later that summer, the ship ran aground during a night exercise offMeleda Island; it took two tries byBudapest andHabsburg to pull her off. She had to be dry-docked for repairs.[12]
TheMonarchs were relegated to the newly formed Reserve Squadron on 1 January 1906 and were only recommissioned for the annual summer exercises. They participated in a fleet review by Archduke Franz Ferdinand in September conducted in theKoločepski Channel nearŠipan. The ships were briefly recommissioned at the beginning of 1913 as the 4th Division after the start of theSecond Balkan War, but were decommissioned again on 10 March.[13]
With the beginning ofWorld War I the threeMonarchs were recommissioned as the 5th Division. They were sent down to theCattaro in August 1914 to attack Montenegrinartillery batteries onMount Lovćen bombarding the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it.Budapest and her sisters arrived on 13 August, but their guns could not elevate sufficiently enough to engage all of the enemy artillery, which was reinforced by eight French guns on 19 October. The battleshipRadetzky was summoned to deal with the guns two days later and she managed to knock out several French guns and forced the others to be withdrawn by 27 October. TheMonarchs remained at Cattaro until mid-1917 to deter any further attacks. In August,Budapest andWien were transferred to Trieste to serve asguard ships against Italian commando raids. Each ship was fitted with an anti-aircraft gun after their arrival on 26 August to counter constant Italian air attacks.Wien was damaged by a near miss on 5 September and both ships withdrew to Pola on 12 September.[14]
They returned to Trieste on 30 October[6] andsortied into the Gulf of Trieste on 16 November to attack Italiancoastal defenses atCortellazzo, near the mouth of thePiave River.Budapest andWien opened fire at 10:35 at a range of about 9–10 kilometers (5.6–6.2 mi) and knocked out most of the Italian guns after about a half-hour. Their bombardment was interrupted by several unsuccessful Italian air attacks before a more coordinated attack was made by fiveMAS torpedo boats and five aircraft around 13:30. This was also unsuccessful and the last Italian coast defense gun was knocked out an hour later.[15]Wien was hit seven times in the superstructure and only lightly damaged;[6] none of her crewmen were wounded.[16]
Anxious to avenge themselves against the Austro-Hungarians, theRegia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) made plans for a sneak attack on the two ships in their berths in theBay of Muggia, near Trieste, by MAS launches.[17] On the night of 9/10 December, two MAS boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected, and fired torpedoes atWien andBudapest at 02:32. The torpedoes fired atBudapest missed, butWien was hit by two torpedoes fired by MAS 9, commanded byLieutenant (tenente di vascello)Luigi Rizzo, that blew a hole 10.5-meter (34 ft) wide abreast the boiler rooms.[18] All of the watertight doors were open on board theWien and the shipcapsized in five minutes despite an attempt to counter her growinglist by flooding the trim tanks on the opposite side. The attack killed 46 members of the crew.[19] Both Italian boats escaped without being detected and Rizzo was awarded theGold Medal of Military Valor.[6]
Wien was buried in the mud of the harbor bottom at a depth of 16.5 meters (54 ft) and salvage of the ship was ordered on 14 December. That same day the navy convened a court-martial ofVice AdmiralAlfred Freiherr von Koudelka, commander of the naval district, thecaptains of both ships, and the commander of the naval defenses of Trieste. On 16 January 1918, the court convicted all four individuals for failing to take all possible precautions to protect the ships and failing to ensure that the precautions were taken. As punishment the court recommended that Koudelka and the two ship captains be retired and the commander of the naval defenses of Trieste to be returned to his former reserve status.EmperorKarl approved the recommendations on 23 January.[20]
The navy ordered that the salvage ofWien be stopped on 7 June and the wreck was ultimately salvaged by the Italians sometime during the 1920s. A section of the ship's stern is on display at theMuseo Storico Navale inVenice.[21]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1917 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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