 One of T4's sister ships, T3
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Austria-Hungary | |
| Name | 79 T then 79 |
| Builder | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino |
| Laid down | 1 December 1913 |
| Launched | 30 April 1914 |
| Commissioned | 1 October 1914 |
| Out of service | 1 November 1918 |
| Fate | Assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | T4 |
| Acquired | March 1921 |
| Commissioned | 1923 |
| Out of service | 1932 |
| Fate | Stranded then scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | 250t-class, T-group sea-going torpedo boat |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 57.84 m (189 ft 9 in) |
| Beam | 5.75 m (18 ft 10 in) |
| Draught | 1.54 m (5 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
| Range | 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 41 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
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T4 was a seagoing torpedo boat operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1932. Originally 79 T, a 250t-class torpedo boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy built in 1914, she was armed with two 66 mm (2.6 in) guns and four 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, and could carry 10–12 naval mines. She saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, anti-submarine operations and shore bombardment missions. In 1917 the suffixes of all Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats were removed, and thereafter she was referred to as 79. Underway during the short-lived mutiny by Austro-Hungarian sailors in early February 1918, her captain realised the danger and put her crew ashore. She was part of the escort force for the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent István during the action that resulted in the sinking of that ship by Italian torpedo boats in June 1918.
Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, 79 was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and was renamed T4. At the time, she and the seven other 250t-class boats were the only modern sea-going vessels of the fledgling maritime force. During the interwar period, T4 and the rest of the navy were involved in training exercises and cruises to friendly ports, but activity was limited by reduced naval budgets. In 1932, she ran aground on the island of Drvenik Mali off the central Dalmatian coast and the hull broke in half. The bow remained on the island, and the stern was towed to the Tivat Arsenal in the Bay of Kotor. As a result, it became a standing joke among Yugoslav sailors that this made T4 the "world's longest torpedo boat". Eventually both sections were scrapped where they were.