Tátra-class destroyer

The Tátra class consisted of six destroyers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy shortly before the First World War.

Design and description

By the last years of the first decade of the 20th century, Admiral Graf Rudolf Montecuccoli, head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine), recognized that the latest Huszár-class destroyers were already obsolete in comparison to larger and faster foreign destroyers. His 1910 expansion plan called for six new large destroyers powered by steam turbines and their construction was awarded to a Hungarian shipyard to secure Hungarian parliamentary approval of the expansion program.^[1]

The Tátra-class ships displaced more than twice as much as the Huszár class which allowed them to have a much stronger armament and be significantly faster. The ships had an overall length of 83.5 meters (273 ft 11 in), a beam of 7.8 meters (25 ft 7 in), and a maximum draft of 3.2 meters (10 ft 6 in). They displaced 850 metric tons (840 long tons) at normal load and 1,050 metric tons (1,030 long tons) at deep load.^[2] The ships had a complement of 105 officers and enlisted men.^[3]

The Tátras were powered by two AEG-Curtiss steam turbine sets, each driving a single propeller shaft using steam provided by six Yarrow boilers. Four of the boilers were oil-fired while the remaining pair used coal. The turbines, designed to produce 20,500 shaft horsepower (15,300 kW), were intended to give the ships a speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph). Lika was the fastest ship of the class at 32.96 knots (61.04 km/h; 37.93 mph). The ships carried 125 metric tons (123 long tons) of oil and 104 metric tons (102 long tons) of coal^[4] which gave them a range of 1,600 nautical miles (3,000 km; 1,800 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).^[5]

The main armament of the Tátra-class destroyers consisted of two 50-caliber Škoda Works 10-centimeter (3.9 in) K11 guns, one each fore and aft of the superstructure in single mounts. Their secondary armament consisted of six 45-caliber 66-millimeter (2.6 in) K09 TAG (German: Torpedoboot-Abwehr Geschütz (anti-torpedo boat guns)). Two of these were placed on anti-aircraft mountings during the war. They were also equipped with four 450-millimeter (17.7 in) torpedo tubes in two twin rotating mountings aft of the funnels.^[6]

Ships

Service history

Six additional destroyers were authorised on 28 May 1914 to increase the number of modern destroyers in service, but construction was cancelled before they were laid down when World War I began in August.

References

Notes

1. Noppen, pp. 42, 50
2. Freivogel, p. 109
3. Sieche 1985a, p. 338
4. Freivogel, pp. 106—107
5. Greger, p. 44
6. Freivogel, pp. 107—108
7. Noppen, p. 43
8. Roberts, p. 287

Bibliography

• Bilzer, Franz F. (1990). Die Torpedoschiffe und Zerstörer der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine 1867–1918. Graz: H. Weishaupt. ISBN 3-9003-1066-1.
• Cernuschi, Enrico & O'Hara, Vincent (2015). "The Naval War in the Adriatic Part 1: 1914–1916". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2015. London: Conway. pp. 161–173. ISBN 978-1-84486-276-4.
• Cernuschi, Enrico & O'Hara, Vincent (2016). "The Naval War in the Adriatic, Part 2: 1917–1918". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2016. London: Conway. pp. 62–75. ISBN 978-1-84486-326-6.
• Freivogel, Zvonimir (2021). Austro-Hungarian Destroyers in World War One. Zagreb: Despot Infinitus. ISBN 978-953-366-051-6.
• Greger, René (1976). Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0623-7.
• Noppen, Ryan K. (2016). Austro-Hungarian Cruisers and Destroyers 1914-18. New Vanguard. Vol. 241. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-1470-8.
• O'Hara, Vincent P. & Heinz, Leonard R. (2017). Clash of Fleets: Naval Battles of the Great War, 1914-18. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-008-4.
• Roberts, John (1980). "Italy". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Sieche, Erwin (1985a). "Austria-Hungary". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Sieche, Erwin F. (1985b). "Zeittafel der Vorgange rund um die Auflosung und Ubergabe der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine 1918–1923". Marine—Gestern, Heute (in German). 12 (1): 129–141.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918: Navalism, Industrial Development, and the Politics of Dualism. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9.
• Vego, Milan (1982). "The Yugoslav Navy 1918–1941". Warship International. XIX (4): 342–361. ISSN 0043-0374.