SMS Szent István

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Career

Laid down:	29 January 1912
Launched:	17 January 1914 <tr valign=top><td>Commissioned:</td><td>17 November 1915</td></tr>
Status:	Sunk 10 June 1918
General Characteristics
Displacement:	20,000 t standard
Length:	152 m
Beam:	27.9 m <tr valign=top><td>Draught:</td><td>8.7 m</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Propulsion:</td><td>12 Babcock & Wilcox fitted with 4 AEG Curtis steam turbines, totalling 26,400 hp (20 MW) on 4 shafts</td></tr>
Speed:	20.4 knots (38 km/h) <tr valign=top><td>Range:</td><td>4,200 nautical miles (7800 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)</td></tr>
Complement:	1087 <tr valign=top><td>Armament:</td><td>12 × 12 in (305 mm) guns in triple turrets 12 × 5.9 in (150 mm) guns in single casemates 18 × 11 pdr (5 kg) guns in single mountings 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Armor:</td><td>11 inch belt, barbettes, turrets and conning tower; 1.4 inch deck</td></tr>

SMS Szent István was an Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship, the only one operated by the Hungarian part of the empire. Hungary got her battleship in return for agreeing to the immense funding of the Tegetthoff class and named her after Hungary's first Christian king, Szent István (Saint Stephen).

Szent István was built at Fiume (the only large Hungarian shipyard) and was commissioned in 1915. This involved great expense, as the yard had hitherto only built fairly small vessels and therefore would have to be fitted out for the building of large ships.

She differed from her three sister-ships in that she had a platform built around the fore funnel which extended from the bridge to the after funnel and on which several searchlights were installed. A further distinguishig feature was the modified ventilator trunk in front of the mainmast. She was the only ship of her class not to be fitted with torpedo nets.

She spent most of her time in commission at her berth in Pula. She was hit by two torpedoes launched from the Italian MAS-15 Motor Torpedo Boat on 10 June 1918 while on sortie out in the Adriatic (in an unsuccessful attempt to break the Otranto Barrage) and soon capsized. She sunk easily due to faults in the Tegetthoff class design (low tonnage displacement and high centre of gravity versus the tremendous weight of 12 × 12 inch (305 mm) main artillery). There were only 89 dead, partly attributed to the fact that all sailors with SMS had to learn to swim before entering active service.

She is immortalized along with HMS Barham and USS Arizona as one of only three battleships to have had their demise captured on film (the film was later used for raising money for the Red Cross).