SMS Sankt Georg
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| History | |
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 Austria-Hungary
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| Name: | SMS Sankt Georg |
| Laid down: | 11 March 1901 |
| Launched: | 8 December 1903 |
| Commissioned: | 21 July 1905 |
| Fate: | Ceded to Britain as a war prize, scrapped in 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Armored cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 124.3 m (407 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 19.01 m (62 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: | 6.83 m (22 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power: | 15,000 ihp (11,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 4-cylinder triple expansion engines, 2 × screw propellers |
| Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Complement: | 630 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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SMS Sankt Georg was the third and final armored cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was built at the Pola Arsenal; her keel was laid in March 1901, she was launched in December 1903, and completed in July 1905. Her design was based on the previous armored cruiser Kaiser Karl VI, with the primary improvement being a stronger armament. Sankt Georg, named for Saint George, was armed with a main battery of two 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns, five 19 cm (7.5 in) guns, and four 15 cm (5.9 in) guns.
Sankt Georg served in the training and reserve squadrons during her peacetime career, usually alternating with Kaiser Karl VI. In April–May 1907, Sankt Georg participated in the Jamestown Exposition in the United States, to commemorate the first English colony in North America. During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian fleet largely remained inactive as a fleet in being, though she did bombard the Italian coast in May 1915 following the latter's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary. In 1917, she supported the Austro-Hungarian forces that raided the Otranto Barrage; in the ensuing Battle of the Strait of Otranto, Sankt Georg's arrival on the scene was sufficient to force the Anglo-Italian forces to break off the engagement and retreat.
By February 1918, the crews of Sankt Georg and several other warships grew weary of the war and the long periods of inactivity, which led to the Cattaro Mutiny. The mutiny was quickly suppressed, but Sankt Georg and several other ships were subsequently decommissioned. Under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Sankt Georg was awarded as a war prize to Britain. In 1920, she was sold to Italian ship breakers and scrapped thereafter.
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. She was followed by an improved cruiser, Kaiser Karl VI, which provided the basis for an even larger ship, which was named Sankt Georg. Each iteration carried a heavier armament and had a higher top speed than the preceding design.
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