SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I

SMS Kaiser Franz Josef I was a protected cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the lead ship of the "Kaiser Franz Josef" class. Named in honor of the Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, the cruiser and its sister ship, "Kaiserin Elisabeth," were built as a reply to the Italian cruisers "Giovanni Bausan" (1883) and "Etna" (1885).

Built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino at Trieste, "Kaiser Franz Josef I" was launched 18 May 1889. A steel-hulled vessel of 3,967 tons displacement, she measured 321 feet in waterline length with a beam of 49 feet and a mean draft of 19 feet. The crew comprised 450 officers and men.

Propulsion was supplied by two sets of horizontal triple-expansion engines with four cylindrical double-ended boilers. Designed performance was 6,400 horsepower for 18 knots and 8,000 horsepower for 19 knots; on trials she in fact reached 20 knots.

Originally, "Kaiser Franz Josef I" and "Kaiserin Elisabeth" were each armed with two 24cm and six 15cm guns, both types Model 1886. "Kaiser Franz Josef I's" 24cm guns were mounted in fore and aft turrets, but owing to fiscal constraints those of "Kaiserin Elisabeth" had armored hoods instead. Both were reconstructed in 1905-06 with each rearmed with two long-barreled 15cm and six short-barreled 15cm guns, both types Model 1901. Rounding out the armament of each were sixteen 4.7cm quick-firing guns, one machine gun and four 14-inch torpedo tubes located above water, two on either beam.

Although "Kaiser Franz Josef I" burned enormous amounts of coal, in 1914 she could still steam at a very fair speed. At the outbreak of the First Wortld War, "Kaiser Franz Josef I" was serving with the 2nd Cruiser Division. She took part in the shelling of enemy batteries on Mount Lovcen (which dominated Cattaro Bay) on 9 September 1914 and again on 8/9 January 1916. Later she was assigned to subsidiary local defense service at Cattaro. She was disarmed in 1917 for use as a floating headquarters.

Upon the defeat and dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, "Kaiser Franz Josef I " wasallocated to France as a war reparation. On her delivery voyage, however, she was overloaded with dismantled machinery and foundered in a gale off Kumbor in Cattaro Bay on 17 October 1919. Portions of the wreck were recovered by a Dutch company in 1922 and by Yugoslav salvagers in 1967.