SMS Drache (1861)

Drache at anchor after her 1867 refit
History
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	1 × steam engine 1 × screw propeller
Speed	10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph)
Complement	346
Armament	1862: 10 × 48-pounder smoothbore guns 18 × 24-pounder rifled, muzzle-loading guns 1 × 8-pounder landing gun 1 × 4-pounder landing gun 1867: 10 × RML 7-inch (178 mm) guns 2 × RML 2-inch (51 mm) guns
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.