Drache at anchor after her 1867 refit
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History | |
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Austro-Hungarian Empire | |
Name | SMS Drache |
Namesake | Dragon |
Builder | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, Trieste |
Laid down | February 1861 |
Launched | 9 September 1861 |
Completed | November 1862 |
Stricken | 13 June 1875 |
Fate | Scrapped, 1883 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Type | Drache-class armored frigate |
Displacement | 3,110 long tons (3,160 t) |
Length | 70.1 m (230 ft) |
Beam | 13.94 m (45 ft 9 in) |
Draft | 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) |
Installed power | 2,060 ihp (1,540 kW) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) |
Complement | 346 |
Armament |
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Armor | Waterline belt: 115 mm (4.5 in) |
SMS Drache was the first of two Drache-class armored frigates built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s, the other being Salamander. Drache was laid down in February 1861, launched in September, and completed in November 1862. She remained in the Adriatic during the Second Schleswig War in 1864 while other ships were sent to attack Denmark. Two years later, Prussia and Italy attacked Austria in the Seven Weeks' War. The ship participated in the Austrian victory over the Italians in the Battle of Lissa, where she inflicted serious damage on the coastal defense ship Palestro, setting her on fire and ultimately destroying her. Drache was modernized immediately after the war, but saw little use thereafter. Badly rotted by 1875, she was stricken from the Navy List that year and eventually broken up in 1883.