Cobra-class torpedo boat

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SM Tb 16 (2).jpg
SM Tb 16 (ex-Cobra) before 1920
Class overview
Builders Yarrow, Poplar, London
Operators Austro-Hungarian Navy
Succeeded by Kaiman class
Completed4
Scrapped4
General characteristics
Type Torpedo boat
Displacement135 t (133 long tons) full load
Length45.9 m (150 ft 7 in) wl
Beam4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Draught2.3 m (7 ft 7 in)
Installed power1,800 ihp (1,300 kW)
Propulsion
  • 2 × Yarrow boilers
  • 1 × triple-expansion steam engine
Speed24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Complement21
Armament
  • 2× 47 mm (1.9 in) guns
  • 3 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes

The Cobra class [1] (also known as the Python class [2] ) was a class of four torpedo boats built by the British shipbuilder Yarrow for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the late 1890s. All four ships served through the First World War and were scrapped in 1919.

Contents

Design and construction

In 1895, the Austro-Hungarian Navy purchased one torpedo boat each from the British shipbuilder Yarrow and the German shipbuilder Schichau-Werke, two specialist builders of torpedo vessels. The two torpedo boats, which carried identical armament, were evaluated against each other. While there was little to choose between the seaworthiness of the two ships, the German-built ship, Natter, suffered vibration at high speed, while the Yarrow-built torpedo-boat, Viper, did not suffer such vibration and the Yarrow design was chosen for further development, with four more torpedo-boats ordered from Yarrow to a modified design. [2]

The new torpedo boats were 46.6 m (152 ft 11 in) long at the waterline and 45.9 m (150 ft 7 in) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) and a draught of 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in). [1] Two coal-fired Yarrow water-tube boilers fed a single three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine which drove a single propeller shaft. The machinery was rated at 1,800 indicated horsepower (1,300  kW ) giving a speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph), although 2,000 ihp (1,500 kW) was generated during sea trials, when Python reached a speed of 24.34 knots (45.08 km/h; 28.01 mph). [1] [3]

The ships were armed by two 47-millimetre (1.9 in) L/33 Skoda guns and three 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, (except Kigyo which was only fitted with two torpedo tubes), with two forward on the sides of the ship, where they could fire almost dead ahead, and one on the ships' centreline aft. The ships had a crew of 21. [1] [4]

Service

The four ships were laid down at Yarrow's Poplar, London shipyard in 1897–1898 and completed in 1898–1900. [1] In 1910, all Austro-Hungarian torpedo-boats were redesignated, replacing their names by numbers, with the Cobra class becoming Tb 13Tb 16. [2]

On the outbreak of the First World War three of the torpedo-boats (Tb 13, Tb 15 and Tb 16) were based at Cattaro as part of the local defence forces, serving as escorts and minesweepers throughout the war, while Tb 14 was used as a salvage vessel for the naval air station at Pola (now Pula in Croatia, later transferring to Šibenik. All four ships survived the war, and were allocated to France and Britain under the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919 (with Tb 13, Tb 15 and Tb 16 going to France and Tb 14 going to Britain) and were scrapped in 1920. [2] [5]

Ships

Citations

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