SMS ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' was a

protected cruiser Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...

of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named in honor of the Empress Elisabeth, consort of Emperor Franz Josef, the cruiser was designed for overseas service and in fact was stationed in China at the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914.

Specifications

Launched at the naval shipyard at

Pola Pola or POLA may refer to: People * House of Pola, an Italian noble family * Pola Alonso (1923–2004), Argentine actress * Pola Brändle (born 1980), German artist and photographer * Pola Gauguin (1883–1961), Danish painter * Pola Gojawiczyńsk ...

on 25 September 1890, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' was a steel-hulled vessel of 3,967 tons displacement. She measured in waterline length with a beam of and a mean

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

of . The crew comprised 450 officers and men.

Propulsion

Propulsion was provided by two sets of horizontal

triple expansion engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

s with four cylindrical double-ended boilers. Designed performance was for and for ; on trials she in fact reached .

Armament

Originally ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' was armed with two and six

gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, p ...

s, both types Model 1886. In 1905-06 she was reconstructed with two long-barreled 15 cm and six short-barreled 15 cm guns, both types Model 1901. Rounding out her armament were 16

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 an ...

s, one

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

and four

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 ...

s located above water, two on either beam.

Service

Although ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' burned enormous quantities of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, in 1914 she could still steam at a very fair speed and was stationed in China. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' took part in the defense of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

colony of

Tsingtao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

, which was

besieged Besieged may refer to: * the state of being under siege * ''Besieged'' (film), a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci {{disambiguation ...

by the Japanese on 25 August 1914; Japan had declared war on Germany on 23 August and the presence of ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' led to Japan declaring war on Austria-Hungary on 25 August. At Tsingtao with ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' were the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

s , , and and the

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

. (The German Asiatic Squadron, normally based at Tsingtau, had made a dash for home across the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

.) The ship′s crew was divided into two groups; one continued manning the ship, while the other bolstered the German garrison. On 6 September 1914 the first air-sea battle in history took place when a Japanese Farman MF.11 aircraft launched by the

seaplane carrier A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

unsuccessfully attacked ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' with bombs.Donko, Wilhelm M.: „Österreichs Kriegsmarine in Fernost: Alle Fahrten von Schiffen der k.(u.)k. Kriegsmarine nach Ostasien, Australien und Ozeanien von 1820 bis 1914“ (epubli, Berlin, 2013) - Page 4, 156-162, 427. Early in the siege ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' and ''Jaguar'' made a sortie against the Japanese. Later, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'''s 15 cm and 4.7 cm guns were removed and mounted ashore in "Batterie Elisabeth." As the siege progressed, the naval vessels trapped in the harbor were

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

-- ''Cormoran'', ''Iltis'' and ''Luchs'' on 28 September, ''S90'' on 17 October and ''Tiger'' on 29 October. Finally, ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' was scuttled on 2 November, followed by ''Jaguar'' on 7 November, the day the fortress surrendered to the Japanese.

References

Bibliography

* Barovič, Jože. Mornarica dvojne monarhije v I. svetovni vojni, Maribor 2005, * * Gogg, Karl. Österreichische Kriegsmarine 1848-1918, Salzburg, 1967, *

External links

KUK Kriegsmarine

Flickr SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiserin Elisabeth Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers Ships built in Pola 1890 ships World War I cruisers of Austria-Hungary Maritime incidents in November 1914 Scuttled vessels of Germany World War I shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks of China