Monarch class coastal battleships (1895)

The Coastal Battleships: This type of “pocket” battleship existed in any second or third-rate navy alongside torpedo boats for shoreline self-defense purposes. Still wielding relatively big guns and decent armour, they were a potent deterrent in 1914. But in the 1890s they were the cornerstone of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The Monarch class has been the first to use proper turrets instead of barbettes. In the end, they would serve through the duration of WW1.

SMS Wien before the war

Development history

By 1890, SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf and SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie were former sail ironclads dating back from the 1870s, and although modernized, they were hopelessly outmatched, in particular by Brin’s Italian battleships in the 1880s. By 1893, funds were available to build three new battleships, but the Hungarian and Austrian parliaments only authorized coastal defense ships according to the naval policy of the day. After a classification change to “Coastal Battleship”, the new ships were named Budapest, Wien, and Monarch. They were the brainchild of the newly appointed director of naval construction, Siegfried Popper. The first two were built at Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino yards in Trieste and the Monarch at Naval Arsenal in Pola. They were laid down in 1893, launched in 1895-96, and commissioned in 1897-98.

Design

The three ships’ displacement was about 5,878 tonnes (5,785 long tons), making them early “pocket battleships”. Their armament was not negligible though, with four turreted 240 mm (9 in) L/40 guns, six individual casemate 150 mm (6 in) L/40 guns, ten 47 mm (1.9 in) L/44 and four L/33 guns, alongside one 8 mm (0.31 in) MG gun and four torpedo tubes. Later in the war, in 1917, a Škoda 7 cm K16 anti-aircraft gun was added to SMS Monarch’s sisters, while she received an older L/45 BAG.

Brassey’s diagram of the Monarch class

All three ships were fitted with Harvey armour. Their belt armor thickness was 270 mm (11 in), their turrets were 203 mm (8.0 in) thick, their conning towers 220 mm (8.7 in), decks 64 mm (2.5 in), and the redoubt and casemates 76 mm (3.0 in) of thickness. Their complement consisted of 26 officers and 397 sailors, with 423 personnel total per ship.
The propulsion varied by ship. Budapest used 12 coal-fired Belleville boilers without economizers, giving an output of 9,180 hp (6,846 kW) for a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). Wien and Monarch had coal-fired cylindrical boilers and vertical triple expansion engines giving them 8,500 hp (6,338 kW) for a maximum speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph). Monarch-class ships normally carried 300 tons of coal, with a maximum of 500 tons, for a range of about 2,200 nmi (4,100 km), quite sufficient for extended raids in the Adriatic.

Model of the Budapest