SMS

Seiner Majestät Schiff

Seiner Majestät Schiff was the ship prefix used by the Prussian Maritime Enterprise , the Prussian Navy, the Imperial German Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy...

 Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was an armoured cruiser used by the imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy

Austro-Hungarian Navy

The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....

 from 1895 to 1917. The German name can be translated as "Empress and Queen Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

".

Construction

The ship was a Torpedo-Rammkreuzer of the class Emperor Franz Joseph I, and the third ship (number "C") of the class. The class was already obsolete by even the planning stage, which soon led to significant changes to the ship's plan. The displacement was enlarged around 1000 tons, and side armor, stronger propulsion systems and increased artillery were added. Most ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in this period were built in Britain - five British shipyards were competing for the contract - but the contract was awarded to the Shipyard STT (Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino

Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino

Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino was a private shipbuilding company based in Trieste from the mid-19th to early 20th century, and the most important naval shipbuilding firm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire....

) San Rocco in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

. The keel was laid on 1 July 1891 with actual construction beginning on 29 July 1891. The Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was launched on 29 April 1893, and she was commissioned on 24 March 1895.

Service history

• 1895 - with the Imperial Ship Association for the opening of the Kiel Canal
  Kiel Canal
  The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....
  
  ;
• 1896 – In the Levant
  Levant
  The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
  
  ;
• 1897 - Participated in the international fleet demonstration off Crete
  Crete
  Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
  
  ;
• 1898 - Special Mission to the West Indies on the occasion of the Spanish-American War
  Spanish-American War
  The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
  
  ;
• 1900-1902 - With the international fleet to East Asia during the Boxer Rebellion
  Boxer Rebellion
  The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
  
  .

Following the 1910 renovation of the Kampfwertsteigerung, the ship made a significant number of foreign trips.
She was the Station ship in the Levant from 1911 to 1913, but she was no longer battle-ready by the beginning of the First World War. She spent the period between 1914-1917 as a support ship in Sebenico. She was decommissioned on 7 February 1917 in Pola

Pula

Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...

, becoming an accommodation ship for the German Mediterranean-submarine flotilla.
The guns were removed and taken ashore.

By October 1918, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was a hulk in Pola. At the end of January 1920, Great Britain was granted the cruiser from the allied naval delegation in Paris, which sent her to the Italian steel mill Vaccaro & Co. to be scrapped. She was towed to Portoferraio (Elba

Elba

Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...

) and scrapped there.

Description

The ship was an armored cruiser with tubular poles, a design heavily based on the French battleship Dupuy de Lome. As Austria-Hungary did not have the manufacturing capabilities to provide the main armament, the guns had to be purchased from the firm of Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 in Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

. These heavy guns were no longer hydraulically operated but electrically driven, causing a reduction in the overall weight.
The construction costs for the SMS Maria Theresia were 7.5 million crowns (kronen), 25% higher compared to the two existing torpedo-Rammkreuzers.
The Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was intended to carry out the tasks of a typical battleship, protecting the battle fleet and carrying out reconnaissance.

The ship underwent a refit in 1910, so that she was able to continue to provide effective training whilst a school-ship.
The two top-heavy tube masts were replaced by battle masts and the Krupp guns were exchanged for 19 cm-Škoda guns.
The casemate-guns were moved into the four corners of the upper decks and modernized to fast-fire cannon.

Note: The authenticity of the place names follows the spelling of the imperial navy.
The links point to the current circumstances.

External links