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
