SMS Lissa (1869)

Austro-Hungarian Navy central battery ironclad (1871-1892)

We start a new cycle dedicated to the Austro-Hungarian Navy until 1900 (the topic of WWI was seen in detail), covering the present Lissa (1869), Custoza (1872), Erzherzog Albrecht (1872), but not SMS Kaiser (already seen). We will see also the Kaiser Max class (1875), SMS Tegetthoff (1878) and the Kronprinzessin Erzh. Stephanie and Rudolf barbette ships. SMS Lissa, named after the Battle was an ironclad warship started in 1867, the only one in her class and only one voted in the new Empire. She was the also the first casemate ship of the Austro-Hungarian navy, boasting a main battery of twelve 9-inch (229 mm) guns in casemate, and was completed by May 1871, much delayed to budgetary tractation with the Hungarian part of the parliament. This lack of funding went on in her career and she never was really active, being laid up in Pola in semi-reserve, having a 1880–1881 modernization until stricken from the fleet in 1892.

Design of the class

Hull and general design

Lissa measured 86.76 meters (284 ft 8 in) long at the waterline, 89.38 m (293 ft 3 in) overall for a beam of 17.32 m (56 ft 10 in) and mean draft of 8.5 m (27 ft 11 in) which was fairly deep not only for Austrian standards, for the adriatic, or even for ironclads in general. This made her both more stable but also sluggish. She was also the largest ironclad ever built for the Navy at 7,086 long tons (7,200 t), compared to 5,130t for the Erzh. F. Max class (1865). Quite a symbolic curve as the previous kaiser Max (1862) were 3,590t and the Salamander of 1861, 2,750t.
As per design, the hull had a moderate ram bow, less curvy than on the Erzh. Ferdinand Max class, and a different poop, no longer “clipper” style with a balcony. She carried three anchors.

As for construction, she still used timber as her hull and most of the upper works and of course the casemate, had a wooden structure on which iron plating was attached. However the sides of the casemate was made of a harder iron. The rear deck had no protection but simple rope barriers, whereas the forward section (flush deck all along) was bulwarked for better seaworthiness. She was also fully masted, with a single funnel relatively tall for the time, on which was added a bridge, but no conning tower. She was three-masted, barque rigged, with four levels of sail and possibly steam-driven capstans.

The crew comprised 620 officers and enlisted men. She also had nice or more service boats, six of them being under davits amidship and rear. The peculiar shape of her central casemate had two stages, one lower battery with fixed ports but rail-mounted guns and a superior, sponsoned casemate with three ports, for a gun with greater fire angles, and recesses fore and aft at this level. She was also the last ironclad with that mixed configuration, and last with a four-stage barque rig. Next Cutoza and Erzh. Albrecth would have schooner rig and full casemated battery.

Protection

She had a mixed protection with a classic full armored belt made of wrought iron plate, 152 mm (6 in) thick, and backed with 770 mm (30.3 in) of timber, mostly teak. This belt extended down 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) below the waterline. The main battery casemate was protected by 127 mm (5 in) of iron plating backed with 724 mm (28.5 in) of timber and there were transverse bulkheads on either end of it, 114 mm (4.5 in) thick to foil cross-fire. She had no conning tower. SMS Tegetthof was the first to have one.

Powerplant

Her propulsion comprised a single-expansion horizontal steam engine with 2-cylinder, driving a single screw propeller four bladed oi bronze and 6.62 m (21.7 ft) in diameter, which was the largest size of any propeller in the Austrian Navy ever. Steam was provided by seven boilers fitted wth a total of with thirty fireboxes, trunked all into a single funnel amidships. This powerplant produced more than any Austrian ship to date, 3,619 indicated horsepower (2,699 kW) versus 2925 ihp on the Erzh.F.Max.
This enabled a top speed of 12.83 knots (23.76 km/h; 14.76 mph). However on speed trials on 9 May 1871 she did much better at 13.29 knots (24.61 km/h; 15.29 mph) based on 3,663 ihp (2,731 kW) in forced heat. At this speed she could still reach 1,420 nautical miles (2,630 km; 1,630 mi) based on her generous coal supply, courtesy of a deep, roomy hull. To compare the Erzh.F.Max had a 7.14 meters (23ft 5in) draft. Her full ship rig was the largest and tallest of the time for an Adriatic ironclad, at 3,112 square meters (33,500 sq ft). In 1886, it was cut down to 1,404 m2 (15,110 sq ft) as she was modernized, and her powerplant modified.

Armament

Lissa’s main battery comprised twelve 9-inch (229 mm) breech-loading guns, all provided by Krupp at its Essen Works. Ten were placed in the central armored battery on the broadside only with low gun ports at 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) from waterline, which needed to be closed and proofed in heavy weather. The remaining two guns were in the smaller redoubt above, sponsons and thus, partly hanging over the lower casemate and providing a true 180° fire arc unlike the lower guns. All these could still penetrate 264 mm (10.4 in) of iron armor. This was completed by smaller guns: Four 8-pounder muzzle-loading rifled (MLR) guns, two 3-pounder MLR guns placed behind upper battery gun ports and on deck for the latter. Exact position is unknown.

Career of SMS Lissa

SMS Lissa was laid down on 27 June 1867 at Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) in San Marco, launched on 25 February 1869 and fitted-out work, visited by Kaiser Franz Joseph I in 1870. Completion of the ship was delayed due to budget interruptions. Hungarian delegated indeed blocked the provision of British made armor plating. She was eventually completed a yard behind schedule on May 1871. The Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy continued yearly to starve the naval budget naval budget, making the fleet a virtual reserve one in peacetime with past-time sailors having other jobs most of the year and rare refreshing training sorties. Skeleton crews watched over maintennace, and even it was not optimal.
After the famous fleet commander Wilhelm von Tegetthoff died in 1871, budgetary problems only went worse. His successor, Friedrich von Pöck did not succeed, but still managed to obtain the reconstruction of the 1859 steam ship of the line kaiser as a second central citadel ironclad and the reconstruction anew of two of the old Kaiser Max class later in 1873. Both spent their time anchored in Pola, laid up in reserve. Only cheaper to operate frigates multipled voyages in the 1870s.

Lissa still saw exercises with the active squadron in November 1871 instead of SMS Habsburg as flagship. She was commanded by Konteradmiral Alois von Pokorny. Lissa sailed with both Erz. F. max ironclads, and the screw corvettes Zrinyi, Dandolo, gunboat Hum for a training cruise in the Adriatic. Lissa remained flagship in 1872, now enriched by the arrival of the screw frigate Novara and by 15 January 1872, the squadron sailed for the Dalmatian islands for manoeuvers. Zrinyi was sent to the Levant by late February while Lissa was sent to Smyrna (Ottoman Empire) on 1 March, joined by Novara and by late Larch by Zrinyi for patrols in the Greek and Ottoman islands, protecting Austrian citizens from troubles.

They left the area by mid-July for tactical training off Corfu, visited Messinan Sicily on 21-29 July, then Palermo on 3 August. They stayed there until 12 August as Lissa needed her engines repaired. Next, they sailed for Goletta in Tunisia and held celebrations for the Kaiser’s birthday leaving on 23 August for Corfu (28th) and Lissa-Novara proceeded together to Smyrna, and assisted the capsized Italian brigantine Providenza. Lissa had a serious fire in the night of 3–4 September 1872 whiled anchored off Corfu, near the propellant magazine. The present crew managed to extinguish it before the worst could happen but the fire was only put out after two hours. Still, damage was relative. The squadron was reunited on 10 September for a cruise in the eastern Mediterranean and stopped on the 19th in Larnaca (Cyprus), Agria 27th and Smyrna on the 29th. By early October they were ordered back to Pola and by early December placed in reserve.

Lissa stayed the fleet’s flagship, active squadron for 1873 with the corvettes Zrinyi, Fasana and gunboat Velebich. She would return to Smyrna, the corvettes being dispatched in Greece and Spain. On 24 September they were reunited at Port Said to recoal and for shooting practice. Lissa returned and stayed off Smyrna until 3 November, then cruised off Syria and ended in Souda Bay, Crete to recoal. She played the host for a small Ottoman squadron later when sailing to Piraeus on 18 November for the King and Queen of Greece. Next she returned to Syria and Smyrna and was present later at Malta for the 25th anniversary of the reign of Franz Joseph, greeted by the Russian ironclad Kniaz Pozharsky. Next she was in Corfu and then Trieste for more shooting practice and back in Pola by December, removed from the active squadron, disarmed, placed in reserve until 1875.

They year she received new boilers and saw her rigging cut down and modified. In 1880 examination of her wooden hull show it had badly rotten. She was drydocked in Pola Arsenal, her armor plating removed, her deteriorated timber replaced anew and her twelve 9-inch guns were retained but as light batteru she gained four 9 cm (3.5 in)/24 and two 7 cm (2.8 in)/15 Krupp as well as three 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns and two 25 mm (0.98 in) Nordenfelt MGs. She returned in the active squadron in 1882, took part in fleet exercises of June 1885 as flagship. The squadron trained around the island of Lissa. She was in semi-reserve, keeping her status until 1888, then placed in II Reserve and further modified: Torpedo launchers were added in 1885 and her main battery guns were renewed with new models, quick firing, same caliber from Krupp. Despite of this she saw little activity until decommissioned and stricken on 13 November 1892, sold and BU between 1893 and 1895.

Read More/Src

Books

von Benko, Jerolim Freiherrn, ed. (1873). “Bewegungen S. M. Kriegsschiffe vom September 1871 bis September 1872” Carl Gerold’s Sohn.
“Bewegungen S. M. Kriegsschiffe vom 1. September 1873 bis 31. August 1874” Pola: Verlag der Redaction.
Brassey, Thomas, ed. (1886). “Exercises of the Austrian Fleet. 1885”. The Naval Annual. J. Griffin & Co.
Pawlik, Georg (2003). Des Kaisers Schwimmende Festungen: die Kasemattschiffe Österreich-Ungarns. Neuer Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.
Scheltema de Heere, R. F. (1973). Fisher, Edward C. (ed.). “Austro-Hungarian Battleships”. Warship International. X (1). Naval Records Club, Inc.
Sieche, Erwin & Bilzer, Ferdinand (1979). “Austria-Hungary”. Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860–1905.
Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. Purdue University Press.

Links

shipstamps.co.uk/
weaponsandwarfare.com
en.wikipedia.org SMS_Lissa