SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia

History
Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, sometime between 1898 and 1900
Austria-Hungary
Name:	SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia
Namesake:	Empress and Queen Maria Theresa
Builder:	Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino
Laid down:	1 July 1891
Launched:	29 April 1893
Commissioned:	November 1894
Fate:	Ceded to Britain in 1920, broken up for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armored cruiser
Displacement:	Design: 5,330 t (5,250 long tons; 5,880 short tons) Full load: 6,026 t (5,931 long tons; 6,643 short tons)
Length:	113.7 m (373.0 ft)
Beam:	16.25 m (53.3 ft)
Draft:	6.81 m (22.3 ft)
Propulsion:	Two triple-expansion engines 9,755 ihp (7,274 kW)
Speed:	19.35 knots (36 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement:	475
Armament:	2 × 24 cm K L/35 guns 8 × 15 cm SK L/35 guns 12 × 4.7 cm L/44 guns 6 × 4.7 cm L/33 Hotchkiss guns 4 × 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt armor: 100 mm (3.9 in) Armor deck: 38 to 57 mm (1.5 to 2.2 in) Turrets: 100 mm Casemates: 8 mm (0.31 in) Conning tower: 50 mm (2.0 in)

SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia ("Empress and Queen Maria Theresa") was an armored cruiser used by the imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1895 to 1917; she was the first ship of that type built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The ship was a unique design, built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste; she was laid down in July 1891, launched in April 1893, and completed in November 1894. Armed with a main battery of two 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns and eight 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, the ship provided the basis for two subsequent armored cruiser designs for the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

In 1898, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was deployed to the Caribbean to safeguard Austro-Hungarian interests during the Spanish–American War; she inadvertently arrived off Santiago de Cuba on the morning the Spanish squadron attempted to escape from the American blockade, and was nearly attacked herself. In 1900, she was sent to China to assist in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, and remained in East Asian waters until 1902. She was heavily modernized between 1906 and 1910, and served in the 1st Cruiser Division after returning to the fleet. She was used first as a harbor guard ship and then as a barracks ship during World War I. After the end of the war, she was surrendered to Britain as a war prize and broken up for scrap in 1920.

In the 1890s, the Austro-Hungarian Navy began building large, modern cruisers, beginning with the protected cruisers of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class. The Marinesektion, the executive committee of the Navy, decided to follow the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships with a more powerful vessel, a larger, better armed armored cruiser, as the type had begun to gain prominence in foreign navies. The Austro-Hungarians requested design proposals from five British shipyards, though none of them were awarded the contract. The Navy gave the contract for "torpedo-ram cruiser C", as it was provisionally titled, to Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, the Austrian dockyard in Trieste. The two subsequent armored cruisers, Kaiser Karl VI and Sankt Georg, were improved versions of this design.

...
Wikipedia