Shipbucket

Hi all!

One of the better central casemate ironclad designs, the first Austrian Tegetthoff was laid down in 1876 and completed in 1881. She had a well-designed battery with overlapping arcs, allowing her to bring three guns to bear on a limited zone amidships, or two each dead forward or dead aft. She was initially armed with six 280mm L/18 breachloaders and some smaller guns and was good for 14 knots; her armour belt consisted of 356mm wrought iron; the casemates had the same protection. Although all that was crammed into a 7.400-ton hull, I found no reports on stability issues, so the first Tegetthoff appears to be a particularly well designed ship for her age.


From 1893 through 1895 she was thoroughly rebuilt: The 280mm guns were replaced with longer 240mm L/35 guns, five 150mm Krupp QF pieces were added, most of the smaller pieces replaced by more modern ones, and two torpedo tubes were installed, discharging forward and aft. She was also re-engined: Her single screw was replaced by two smaller ones (speed increased to 15 knots), and she received new, slightly raked funnels. The sailing rig was removed, and military masts installed. The boat complement was changed and two new cranes were erected, and the bridge structure was enlarged. Finally, torpedo nets were installed.


Unfortunately, this complex reconstruction was hardly worth the effort, because the central casemate ship as a type was hopelessly obsolete in the mid-1890s. After less than three more years in active service, Tegetthoff became a guard ship in 1897. As such, she endured throughout the Great War and was scrapped in 1920.

Greetings
GD

Those are good looking drawings, love how you have shaded those casemates.

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Hood's Worklist
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Interwar RN Capital Ships
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Excellent work indeed.

Hi all

Another KuK ironclad, the smallest of them: Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie. At less than 6.000 tons, this little cutie boasted two 305mm cannon (both capable of ahead fire, but only one on each broadside), six 150mm pieces (three on each broadside) and a speed of 17 knots; like all KuK ships, she was optimized for ramming.


She was never modernized and hulked in 1910; she lasted through the First World War as accommodation hulk and was scrapped afterwards.

Cheers
GD

Great work.

Another lovely addition.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Hi all

Austria's step from the ironclad into the pre-dreadnought era: The Monarch-class coastal battleships.

Three ships of some 5.600 tons mean, built between 1893 and 1897, named Monarch, Wien and Budapest. Speed (17,5 knots) and protection (the belt was 220 - 270mm Harvey steel) were adequate for their time, and their armament of four 240mm Krupp, six 150mm and 14 47mm guns (all Skoda) was modern and quite powerful for a ship of her size. They were all identical except for minor details at the funnels. Wien was completed without a main mast, but quickly retrofitted. The other two apparently had the mainmast from the start (if the pictures I've seen were correctly labeled). Typically for Austrian ships before 1900, the paintjob frequently changed; on photographs, funnels were sometimes white, or masts black - or both buff, as shown here.


After 1900, the class was painted green. Thex received a wireless rig; otherwise, they were little changed.


Wien was sunk by Italian naval commandoes in 1917. Monarch was decommissioned early in 1918 after a mutiny. Budapest landed turret A in 1918 and received a 380mm siege mortar forward for a planned coastal bombardment mission, which was never carried out. By 1918, the torpedo nets were landed.


The survivors were allocated to Great Britain after the war and scrapped in Italy.

Greetings
GD

Excellent!
Very nice to see those k.u.k. ships done in your usual superb quality.

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"You can rape history, if you give her a child"
Alexandre Dumas

JE SUIS CHARLIE

love em

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