SMS Kaiser Karl VI
SMS Kaiser Karl VI
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| History | |
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 Austria-Hungary
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| Builder: | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino |
| Laid down: | 1 June 1896 |
| Launched: | 4 October 1898 |
| Commissioned: | 23 May 1900 |
| Decommissioned: | 1918 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Armored cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 118.96 m (390.3 ft) |
| Beam: | 17.27 m (56 ft 8 in) |
| Draft: | 6.75 m (22 ft) |
| Installed power: | 12,000 ihp (8,900 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 4-cylinder triple expansion engines, 2 × screw propellers |
| Speed: | 20.83 knots (38.58 km/h; 23.97 mph) |
| Complement: | 535 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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SMS Kaiser Karl VI ("His Majesty's Ship Kaiser Karl VI") was the second of three armored cruisers built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste between June 1896 and May 1900, when she was commissioned into the fleet. Kaiser Karl VI represented a significant improvement over the preceding design—Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia—being faster and more heavily armed and armored. She provided the basis for the third design, Sankt Georg, which featured further incremental improvements. Having no overseas colonies to patrol, Austria-Hungary built the ship solely to reinforce its battle fleet.
Kaiser Karl VI spent the first decade in service rotating between the training and reserve squadrons, alternating with Sankt Georg. In 1910, Kaiser Karl VI went on a major overseas cruise to South America, visiting Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina; this was the last trans-Atlantic voyage of an Austro-Hungarian warship. After the outbreak of war, she was mobilized into the Cruiser Flotilla, which spent the majority of the war moored at Cattaro. The lengthy inactivity eventually led to the Cattaro Mutiny in February 1918, which the crew of Kaiser Karl VI joined. After the mutiny collapsed, Kaiser Karl VI and several other warships were decommissioned to reduce the number of idle sailors. After the war, she was allocated as a war prize to Britain and was sold to ship-breakers in Italy, where she was scrapped in 1920.
In the 1890s, the Austro-Hungarian Navy began to build armored cruisers to support the battle fleet and to perform some of the roles then reserved only for battleships. The first vessel, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, was built as an enlarged version of the protected cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth, with a more powerful armament and heavier armor. Maria Theresia was followed by an improved cruiser, Kaiser Karl VI, which was about 800 metric tons (790 long tons; 880 short tons) heavier, about 1.5 knots (2.8 km/h; 1.7 mph) faster, with much heavier armor. Kaiser Karl VI in turn provided the basis for an even larger ship, which was named Sankt Georg.
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Wikipedia