Drache-class ironclad
Drache at anchor after her 1867 refit
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, Trieste |
| Operators: |
 Austria–Hungary |
| Preceded by: | None |
| Succeeded by: | Kaiser Max class |
| Built: | 1861–62 |
| In commission: | 1862–83 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Scrapped: | 2 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type: | Ironclad armored frigate |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 70.1 m (230 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 13.94 m (45 ft 9 in) |
| Draft: | 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: | 1 Shaft, 1 Steam engine |
| Sail plan: | Barque-rigged |
| Speed: | 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) |
| Complement: | 346 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | Waterline belt: 115 mm (4.5 in) |
The Drache-class ironclads were a pair of wooden-hulled armored frigates built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s, the first ironclads built for Austria-Hungary. Ordered in response to a pair of Italian ironclads in 1860, Drache and Salamander were laid down in early 1861, launched later that year, and completed in 1862. They participated in the Austrian victory over the Italians in the Battle of Lissa, where Drache destroyed the coastal defense ship Palestro, one of two Italian ships sunk in the action. Both ships were withdrawn from front-line service in 1875. Drache's hull was in poor condition, so she was discarded and eventually broken up in 1883, but Salamander became a harbor guard ship. She was hulked in 1883 and converted into floating storage for naval mines before being scrapped in 1895–1896.
The launch of the French Gloire, the world's first ironclad warship, started a naval arms race between the major European powers. The Austrian Navy began a major ironclad construction program under the direction of Archduke Ferdinand Max, the Marinekommandant (naval commander) and brother of Kaiser Franz Josef I, the emperor of Austria. This program was in response to a similar naval expansion in the recently-united Kingdom of Italy across the Adriatic Sea. Drache and Salamander were ordered in response to the two Formidabile-class ironclads that Italy had bought from France in 1860. The design work was done by the Austrian Director of Naval Construction, Josef von Romako, who would go on to design all of the Austrian ironclads through to Tegetthoff in the late 1870s. The ships were rated as third-class armored frigates.
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