The Tátra class consisted of six destroyers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy shortly before the First World War.
Design and description By the last years of the first decade of the 20th century, Admiral Graf Rudolf Montecuccoli, head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (), recognized that the latest s were already obsolete in comparison to larger and faster foreign destroyers. His 1910 expansion plan called for six new large destroyers powered by steam turbines and their construction was awarded to a Hungarian shipyard to secure Hungarian parliamentary approval of the expansion program.Noppen, pp. 42, 50
The Tátra-class ships displaced more than twice as much as the Huszár class which allowed them to have a much stronger armament and be significantly faster. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of , and a maximum draft of . They displaced at normal load and at deep load.Freivogel, p. 109 The ships had a complement of 105 officers and enlisted men.Sieche 1985a, p. 338
The Tátras were powered by two AEG-Curtiss steam turbine sets, each driving a single propeller shaft using steam provided by six Yarrow boilers. Four of the boilers were oil-fired while the remaining pair used coal. The turbines, designed to produce , were intended to give the ships a speed of . was the fastest ship of the class at . The ships carried of oil and of coalFreivogel, pp. 106—107 which gave them a range of at .Greger, p. 44
The main armament of the Tátra-class destroyers consisted of two 50-caliber Škoda Works K11 guns, one each fore and aft of the superstructure in single mounts. Their secondary armament consisted of six 45-caliber K09 TAG ( (anti-torpedo boat guns)). Two of these were placed on anti-aircraft mountings during the war. They were also equipped with four torpedo tubes in two twin rotating mountings aft of the funnels.Freivogel, pp. 107—108
Ships + Construction dataShipBuilderLaid downLaunchedCompletedNoppen, p. 43Fate Ganz-Danubius, Porto Ré19 October 1911 14 November 1912 12 October 1913Transferred to Italy, renamed Fasano, discarded, 19236 November 1911 16 November 1912 3 November 1913Transferred to Italy, renamed Zenson, discarded, 1923 59 January 191230 December 191229 December 1913Transferred to Italy, renamed Muggia, sunk in a typhoon, 25 March 1929 30 April 191215 March 19138 August 1914Sunk by mine during the Battle of Durazzo, 29 December 19151 August 191222 December 19134 September 191226 August 191311 August 1914Transferred to Italy, renamed Pola, then Zenson, 1931, discarded, 1937Roberts, p. 287
Service history
Six additional destroyers were authorised on 28 May 1914 to increase the number of modern destroyers in service, but construction was cancelled before they were laid down when World War I began in August.
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