SMS Admiral Spaun was a scout cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Admiral and Marinekommandant (Commander-in-Chief of the Navy) Hermann von Spaun, Admiral Spaun was constructed shortly before World War I. Laid down at the Pola Navy Yard in May 1908, the cruiser was launched in October 1909. Admiral Spaun was commissioned into the Navy just over a year later, in November 1910. The first ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy to be constructed with steam turbines, her design later influenced the construction of the s.
Admiral Spaun served as the flotilla leader of the Second Torpedo Flotilla at the outbreak of World War I and was stationed out of the naval base at Cattaro. She saw limited action during the first year of the war, and following Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, the cruiser participated in a bombardment of the Italian coastline. Throughout the rest of 1915, Admiral Spaun engaged in various operations across the Adriatic Sea. While she was involved in missions centred mostly around Trieste in the northern Adriatic for the rest of the war, Admiral Spaun also participated in many of Austria-Hungary's naval operations as far south as the Otranto Barrage and the Strait of Otranto, alongside the Novara-class cruisers.
Emboldened by the Austro-Hungarian victory during the Battle of the Strait of Otranto, and determined to break the Otranto Barrage with a major attack on the strait, Austria-Hungary's newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet Miklós Horthy organised a massive attack on the Allied forces with Admiral Spaun, alongside seven battleships, three cruisers, four destroyers, four torpedo boats, and numerous submarines and aircraft, but the operation was abandoned after the battleship was sunk by the Italian motor torpedo boat MAS-15 on the morning of 10 June.
After the sinking of Szent István, the ships returned to port where they remained for the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in October 1918, the Austrian government transferred its navy to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allies. Following the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, Admiral Spaun was seized by the Allies and transferred to Italy, where she participated in a victory parade through the Venice Lagoon in March 1919. The final distribution of Austria-Hungary's former navy was settled under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1920. Admiral Spaun was ceded to the United Kingdom before being sold for scrap and broken up between 1920 and 1921.
Background
In 1904, the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of ten battleships of various types, three armoured cruisers, six protected cruisers, eight torpedo vessels, and 68 torpedo craft. The total tonnage of the navy was . While the navy was capable of defending the coastline of Austria-Hungary, this fleet was drastically outclassed by other major Mediterranean navies, namely Italy and the United Kingdom. Following the establishment of the Austrian Naval League in September 1904, and the October appointment of Vice-Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli to the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (German: Marinekommandant) and Chief of the Naval Section of the War Ministry (German: Chef der Marinesektion), the Austro-Hungarian Navy began an expansion program suitable for that of a Great Power. Montecuccoli immediately pursued the efforts championed by his predecessor, Admiral Hermann von Spaun, and pushed for a greatly expanded and modernized navy.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Austria-Hungary's naval policy began to shift away from simply coastal defence, to projecting power into the Adriatic and even Mediterranean Seas. This change in policy was motivated by both internal and external factors. New railroads had been constructed through Austria's Alpine passes between 1906 and 1908, linking Trieste and the Dalmatian coastline to the rest of the Empire and providing the interior of Austria-Hungary with quicker access to the sea than ever before. Lower tariffs on the port of Trieste aided the expansion of the city and a similar growth in Austria-Hungary's merchant marine. These changes necessitated the development of a new line of battleships capable of more than the defence of Austria-Hungary's coastline.
Prior to the turn of the century, sea power had not been a priority in Austrian foreign policy, and the navy had little public interest or support. The appointment of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and a prominent and influential supporter of naval expansion – to the position of admiral in September 1902 greatly increased the importance of the navy in the eyes of both the general public and the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments. Franz Ferdinand's interest in naval affairs stemmed primarily from his belief that a strong navy would be necessary to compete with Italy, which he viewed as Austria-Hungary's greatest regional threat.
Austro-Italian naval arms race As the first scout cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Admiral Spaun was authorized when Austria-Hungary was engaged in a naval arms race with its nominal ally, Italy. Italy's Regia Marina was considered the most-important naval power in the region which Austria-Hungary measured itself against, often unfavourably. The disparity between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies had existed for decades; in the late 1880s Italy boasted the third-largest fleet in the world, behind the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. While that disparity had been somewhat equalized with the Imperial Russian Navy and the German Imperial Navy surpassing the Italian Navy in 1893 and in 1894, by 1904 the balance began to shift towards Italy's favour once more. Indeed, by 1904 the size of the Italian Regia Marina was by tonnage was over twice that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and while the two nations had relatively even numbers of battleships, Italy had over twice as many cruisers.
+Naval strength of Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1904TypeItalyAustria-HungaryItalian/Austro-Hungarian tonnage ratioNumberTonnageNumberTonnageBattleships13101.9:1Armoured cruisers632.1:1Protected cruisers1462.1:1Torpedo vessels1582.5:1Torpedo Craft145682.4:1Total195952.3:1
Montecuccoli's plan Admiral Spaun first conceived on paper in early 1905 when Montecuccoli drafted his first proposal for a modern Austrian fleet as part of his plan to construct a navy large enough to contest the Adriatic Sea. This initial plan consisted of 12 battleships, four armoured cruisers, eight scout cruisers, 18 destroyers, 36 high seas torpedo craft, and six submarines. While specifics had yet to be drawn up, the four cruisers in Montecuccoli's plan would ultimately become Admiral Spaun and the three ships of the Novara class. Due to a political crisis within the Hungarian government, a vote on Montecuccoli's proposed program was delayed for most of 1905. It would not be until the end of the year before the Austrian and Hungarian Delegations for Common Affairs approved Montecuccoli's program. Under the terms of the budget agreement, 121,000,000 Krone was set aside for warship construction over a period of three years, with the installments for this special credit being retroactively pushed back to 1904. The budget lacked funding for the three other cruisers Montecuccoli wished to construct, but included funding for the three s, six destroyers, and Admiral Spaun.
Design
Designed for scouting missions, Admiral Spaun was based on the premise that the theater of operations she would operate in would be largely confined to the Adriatic Sea. She was intended to act as a fast moving scout cruiser capable of conducting hit-and-run missions while also threatening communications and convoy routes. Montecuccoli believed that should Austria-Hungary be drawn into a larger naval conflict encompassing the Mediterranean, Admiral Spaun would still be capable of fulfilling her role successfully and that a class of battlecruisers was not necessary for such a scenario. Following the construction of Admiral Spaun, her design was so well received that she was used to influence the construction of the three Novara-class cruisers which followed her. The similarities between Admiral Spaun and the Novaras were so close that despite being different classes, both contemporary and modern publications occasionally link all four ships together as members of the same class.
Admiral Spaun had an overall length of . At the waterline, the cruiser had a length of , while her length between perpendiculars measured . She had a beam of and a mean draft of at deep load. She was designed to displace at normal load, but at full combat load she displaced . The propulsion systems of the ship consisted of six Parsons steam turbines and four shafts. These turbines were designed to provide and were powered by 16 Yarrow water-tube boilers, giving Admiral Spaun a top speed of during her sea trials. Admiral Spaun had a crew of 320–327 officers and men.
Admiral Spaun was armed with a main battery of seven 50-caliber guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed forward on the forecastle of the ship, four were located amidship, two on either side, and one was located on the quarterdeck. She also possessed a SFK L/44 gun. A Škoda /50 K10 anti-aircraft gun and four torpedo tubes in twin mounts were added to Admiral Spaun in 1916. The guns of Admiral Spaun were of a smaller caliber than many other cruisers of the era, which led to plans to remove the guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck of the ship and replace them with a pair of guns fore and aft, but these modifications were not able to take place before the war ended. Her smaller armament was due in part because of a desire within the Austro-Hungarian Navy for Admiral Spaun to have a faster speed and greater armour than most other contemporary cruisers of the era. As a result, the armament of the cruiser had to be scaled down.
Admiral Spaun was protected at the waterline by an armoured belt which measured thick amidship. The guns had thick shields, while the thickness of the deck for the ship was . The armour protecting the conning tower was .
Construction
Admiral Spaun was laid down at the Pola Navy Yard on 30 May 1908. During construction, Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino struck an agreement with the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company to allow for the construction of Admiral Spauns steam turbines to be assembled in Trieste using materials found from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was the first ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy to be constructed with steam turbines.
In September 1909, Montecuccoli proposed to the Austro-Hungarian Ministerial Council a budget for 1910 which would authorise construction on the three cruisers of the Novara class, alongside the four dreadnoughts of the battleships and several torpedo boats and submarines. While Montecuccoli's desire to construct a new class of cruisers was delayed, this time due to the financial costs Austria-Hungary took on following the annexation of Bosnia and the mobilisation of her fleet and army at the height of Bosnian crisis, the navy was given funds to speed up completion of the battleships and Admiral Spaun.
After nearly a year and a half of construction, Admiral Spaun was launched on 30 October 1909. Thereafter, she conducted sea trials for a year. When Admiral Spaun was ordered, she was designed to attain a speed greater than contemporary cruisers found in other navies around the world, such as the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy. In September 1910, it was reported that she obtained a top speed of . This was faster than her contracted speed. After the conclusion of her sea trials, Admiral Spaun was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 15 November 1910.
Service history Pre-war