Tatra class destroyer

The Tatra Class, a class of destroyer built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy before the First World War.

History

The Tatra Class destroyers comprised six ships - "Tatra", "Balaton", "Csepel", "Lika", "Triglav" and "Orjen". Built by Porto Ré, a subsidiary of Danubius & Ganz, they were launched in the years 1912 and 1913. Unfortunately, both "Triglav" and "Lika" were sunk by mines near Durazzo on 29 December 1915.

Six further destroyers had been authorised in May 1914 to increase the number of destroyers but never started before the outbreak of the war. Four units were authorised in 1916 to replace the losses during war. These four ships were named "Triglav II", "Lika II", "Dukla" and "Uzsok" and classified as the Replacement Triglav Class. They were also built by Danubius and launched in 1917, so their wartime careers were rather short. Propelled by two steam turbines these four vessels were the most modern ships of the Austro Hungarian Navy.

The ships were of 85.28 m overall length with a beam of 7.80 m. Their design displacement was 880 tons with a full load displacement of 1045 tons. Powered by 2 AEG-Curtiss turbines. producing in excess of convert|20.500|shp|abbr=on, driving two shafts. They were able to achieve speeds of up to convert|33.8|kn|km/h. Of the six Yarrow boilers, four were oil fired. And the other two capable of operating with oil or coal. Their Armament was two 10 cm main guns of 50 calibre length. Secondary armament was provided by six 7 cm guns 45 calibre length. Two of them were on special anti aircraft mountings. The gun armament was completed by a single17.8 mm machine gun. Their main offensive capabilty came from four 45 cm torpedo tubes mounted in pairs. After war, three, the "Tiglav", "Lika", "Uzsok", vessels were ceded to Italy and one, the "Dukla", to France. The last vessel was discarded in 1936.