Austrian pre dreadnought battleship SMS Habsburg 1899-1921

Habsburg-class

Erzherzog Karl-class

Laid down at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard, Trieste, Italy on 13 March 1899, launched on 9 September 1900, commissioned on 31 December 1902, modernized and even removing one of her superstructure decks in order to decrease her total weight in 1910, after her modernisation converted into a coastal defence vessel, participated in the bombardment of Ancona, Italy on 23 May 1915, afterwards she returned towards Pola [nowadays Pula, Croatia] where she remained during the First World War without further action, decommissioned and in service as harbour defence vessel with her crew divided over the submarines and aircrafts in 1916, decommissioned as training ship for the Austrian Naval Academy, after the war as war retribution ceded to the United Kingdom but sold to Italy and broken up in 1921.

Of the Habsburg-class consisting of the Árpád, Habsburg and Babenberg, succeeded by the Erzherzog Karl-class.(1) General technical specifications 8.364 tons/8.232 long tons-8.965 tons/8.823 long tons (full load) and as dimensions 113,11 (waterline)-114,6 (over all) x 19,8 x 7,5 metres or 371-375.10 x 65 x 24.6 feet, a freeboard of 5,80 (fore)-5,50 (aft) metres or 19.0-18.0 feet. And a metacentric height of 0,82-1,02 metres/2.7-3.3 feet. Flushed wood planked main deck. The upper decks had an upper layer of covered with linoleum or corticine. The hull were built up from transverse and longitudinal steel frames in fact connected by riveting at the outside the hull plates with over 63% of her length incorporating a double bottom. The hull was divided in totally 174 watertight compartments between the keel and the gun deck. At each side of the hull were bilge keels fitted to improve the stability and reducing eventual rolling. Crew numbered 638 men. Fitted out with 2-shaft 4 cylinder vertical expansion steam engines and 16 Belleville boilers supplying 15.063 ihp allowing a maximum speed of 19,62 knots. The face-hardened chrome-nickel steed made armour consisted of a waterline belt with a thickness of 18-22cm/7.1-8.7”, a 4cm/1.6” thick belt with the turrets/casemates and conning tower protected by respectively 21-28cm/8.3-11.0” and 15cm/5.9”. The armament consisted of 1x2&1x1-24c,/9.4” 40cal Krupp C97 guns, 12x1-15cm/5.9” 40 cal Krupp C96 guns, 10-6.6cm/5.9” 45cal Skoda guns, 6-4,7cm/1.9” 44 cal Skoda quick firing guns. 2-4,7cm/1.9” 33 cal Skoda quick firing guns and 2-45cm/17.7” submerged torpedo tubes.

Note
1. The Erzherzog Karl-class pre-dreadnought battleships built between 1902 and 1907 consisted of the Erzherzog Karl, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzog Friedrich with a displacement of 10.640 tons and as dimensions 126,2 x 21,8 x 7,5 metres and a main armament of 4-24cm/9.4” guns and 12-19cm/7.5” guns and a speed of 20,5 knots.