SMS ''Boa'' was a torpedo boat of the

Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...

. Built as a unit of the , she was typical of the seagoing torpedo boats acquired by Austria-Hungary between 1896 and 1914. In 1910 she was renamed ''Torpedoboot 15.''

Development

''Boa'' and her sister ships, ''Python'', ''Kígyó'' (Snake) and ''Cobra,'' were the result of competitive tests between two torpedo boats built in 1895–96. ''Natter'' was built by the firm of

F. Schichau The Schichau-Werke (F. Schichau, Maschinen- und Lokomotivfabrik, Schiffswerft und Eisengießerei GmbH) was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, Germany (now Elbląg, Poland) on the Frisches Haff (Vistula Lagoon) of then- Eas ...

at Elbing, while ''Viper'' was built by

Yarrow ''Achillea millefolium'', commonly known as yarrow () or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal. The ...

on the Thames at

Millbank Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Millb ...

. Admiralty ''(Marinesektion)'' officials were better satisfied with the performance of ''Viper,'' and four slightly larger examples were ordered from Yarrow.

Design

A steel-hulled vessel of 132 tons displacement, ''Boa'' measured six inches (152 mm) in length with a beam of and a draft of four feet six inches. Her reciprocating engines of gave a speed of . Armament consisted of two

quick-firing gun A quick-firing or rapid-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, which has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate. Quick-firing was introduced worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s and ...

s and three

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

Service history

Launched on the Thames on 20 August 1898, ''Boa'' was completed on 24 September of that year. She and her sister ships formed a division of seagoing torpedo boats capable of challenging Italian forces in the event of war. In 1910 a new nomenclature was introduced for all Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats. Existing names were discarded and replaced with numbers in the series ''Torpedoboot 1'' to ''Torpedoboot 49.'' ''Boa'' was renamed ''Torpedoboot 15,'' abbreviated ''Tb 15.'' During the First World War, ''Tb 15'' was employed as a convoy escort and minesweeper. Allocated to Britain as a

war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

in 1920, she was immediately sold and scrapped in Italy.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

kuk-kriegsmarine.at : Torpedoboote 13–18
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boa, SMS Python-class torpedo boats 1898 ships Ships built on the River Thames Cobra-class torpedo boats