SMS Wildfang
SMS Wildfang was one of the dozen s built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She sank after striking a naval mine in 1917 during World War I.
Design and description
The Huszar-class ships had a flush deck design with a distinctive "turtleback" forecastle that was intended to clear water from the bow during high-speed navigation, but was poorly designed for high waves or bad weather. The ships normally displaced and at full load. They measured long overall with a beam of, and a draft of. The ships were propelled by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam from four Yarrow boilers; each boiler was provided with an individual funnel. Wildfangs turbines were slightly more powerful than those of her sister ships and were designed to produce a total of for an intended maximum speed of. During the ship's sea trials, she reached. The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of at 28 knots. Their crew numbered 70 officers and men.The main armament of the Huszar class consisted of a single 45-caliber Škoda SFK gun]. The gun was mounted on a platform on the forecastle with the turtleback leading right up to it. Their secondary armament included seven guns. Two guns were positioned on the main deck right behind the bow gun's mount, four others were located on the deck amidships; all of these guns were on the broadside. The seventh gun was on the stern. All of the guns were fitted with gun shields. The ships were equipped with two torpedo tubes in two single, rotating mounts. One of these was located between the forward gun mount and the superstructure while the other was positioned between the aft funnel and the stern gun.
In 1913 the ships exchanged their seven guns for five 30-caliber Škoda guns. These guns replaced the stern and amidships weapons. To save weight, gun shields were not fitted to these guns. Two years later the Huszars were equipped with an Schwarzlose M.7/12 anti-aircraft machine gun. In 1917, the ships were supposed to exchange their 66 mm SFK guns with new K07 guns on anti-aircraft mounts and one 30-caliber gun was supposed to installed in an anti-aircraft mount, but it is uncertain how much of this was actually done.