SMS Szent István

SMS Szent István

SMS Szent István in the Fažana Strait
History
Austria-Hungary
Name:	SMS Szent István
Namesake:	Saint Stephen I of Hungary
Builder:	Ganz & Company, Fiume
Cost:	about 60,600,000 K
Laid down:	29 January 1912
Launched:	17 January 1914
Sponsored by:	Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria
Commissioned:	13 December 1915
Fate:	Torpedoed, 10 June 1918
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tegetthoff-class battleship
Displacement:	20,008 t (19,692 long tons) standard 21,689 t (21,346 long tons) full load
Length:	152.18 m (499 ft 3 in)
Beam:	28 m (91 ft 10 in)
Draught:	8.6 m (28 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:	2 shaft, 2 AEG-Curtis steam turbines 12 Babcock & Wilcox boilers 26,000 shp (19,388 kW)
Speed:	20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Range:	4,200 nmi (7,800 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:	1094
Armament:	4 × triple 305 mm (12 in)/45 K 10 guns 12 × single 150 mm (5.9 in)/50 K 10 guns 12 × single 66-millimetre (2.6 in)/50 K 10 guns 3 × single 66-mm/50 anti-aircraft K 10 guns 4 × 533-millimetre (21 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Waterline belt: 150–280 mm (5.9–11.0 in) Deck: 30–48 mm (1.2–1.9 in) Turrets and Conning tower: 60–280 mm (2.4–11.0 in) Bulkheads: 120–180 mm (4.7–7.1 in)

SMS Szent István  was a Tegetthoff-class dreadnought of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the only one built in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary. The Ganz & Company's Danubius Yard in Hungarian-owned Fiume (current-day Rijeka) was awarded the contract to build the battleship in return for the Hungarian government agreeing to the 1910 and 1911 naval budgets. She was named after Hungary's first Christian king, Saint Stephen (Hungarian: Szent István). She and her sister ships were regarded as very compact and powerful ships and were the first dreadnoughts in service with triple main-gun turrets.

Her completion was delayed by the start of World War I, but she was commissioned in December 1915. She spent the bulk of the war at anchor in Pola (Pula), leaving harbour generally only for gunnery training. Her final mission began on the evening of 9 June 1918 when she sailed to rendezvous with the other dreadnoughts for an attack on the Otranto Barrage, scheduled for the following day. Two Italian MAS, a type of motor torpedo boat employed by the Regia Marina, discovered Szent István and her half-sister Tegetthoff early in the morning of 10 June 1918 while returning after a night patrol off the Dalmatian coast. They penetrated past her escorts and torpedoed her twice abreast her boiler rooms. They flooded, which knocked out power to the pumps, and Szent István capsized less than three hours after being torpedoed. All but 89 of her crew were rescued. She is the only battleship whose sinking was filmed during World War I.