SMS SZENT ISTVáN

SMS Szent István
Career	Austro-Hungarian Navy Ensign
Laid down:	29 January 1912
Launched:	17 January 1914
Commissioned:	17 November 1915
Fate:	re-classified ''Szent István'' Sunk 10 June 1918
General characteristics
Displacement:	20,000 t standard
Length:	152 m
Beam:	27.9 m
Draught:	8.7 m
Propulsion:	12 Babcock & Wilcox fitted with 4 AEG Curtis steam turbines, totalling 26,400 hp (20 MW) on 4 shafts
Speed:	20.4 knots (38 km/h)
Range:	4,200 nautical miles (7800 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement:	1,087
Armament:	12 × 305 mm guns in triple turrets 12 × 150 mm guns in single casemates 18 × 70 mm guns in single mountings 4 × 533 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:	275 mm belt, barbettes, turrets and conning tower; 35 mm deck

'SMS ''Szent István''' was an Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship, the only one operated by the Hungarian part of the empire. Hungary got her battleship in return for agreeing to the immense funding of the ''Tegetthoff'' class and named her after Hungary's first Christian king, Saint Stephen (''Szent István'' in Hungarian).
''Szent István'' was built at Rijeka (the only large Hungarian shipyard) and was commissioned in 1915. This involved great expense, as the yard had hitherto only built fairly small vessels and therefore would have to be fitted out for the building of large ships.
She differed from her three sister-ships in that she had a platform built around the fore funnel which extended from the bridge to the after funnel and on which several searchlights were installed. A further distinguishing feature was the modified ventilator trunk in front of the mainmast. She was the only ship of her class not to be fitted with torpedo nets.
She spent most of her time in commission at her berth in Pula. She was hit by two torpedoes launched from the Italian MAS-15 Motor Torpedo Boat on 10 June 1918 while on sortie out in the Adriatic (in an unsuccessful attempt to break the Otranto Barrage) and soon capsized. She sank easily due to faults in the Tegetthoff class design: low tonnage displacement and high centre of gravity, together with the tremendous weight of 12 × 305 mm main artillery. There were only 89 dead, partly attributed to the fact that all sailors with SMS had to learn to swim before entering active service.
''Szent István'' is one of only three battleships whose sinking was filmed, together with HMS ''Barham'' and USS ''Arizona''. The ''Szent István'' film was used to raise money for the Red Cross.

Contents

See also

External links

See also

★ Tegetthoff class battleship

★ List of ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy

★ List of ship launches in 1914

★ List of ship commissionings in 1915

★ List of shipwrecks in 1918

External links

★ Sinking of Szent Istvan

★ Sinking of Szent István (Video)

★ Tegetthoff class drednoughts - the primary online source for this topic since 1998

★ Austro-Hungarian Navy