SMS Lissa

300px Line-drawing of Lissa
History
Austria-Hungary
Name:	Lissa
Namesake:	Battle of Lissa
Laid down:	27 June 1867
Launched:	25 February 1869
Commissioned:	May 1871
Struck:	13 November 1892
Fate:	Scrapped, 1893-1895
General characteristics
Displacement:	7,086 metric tons (6,974 long tons; 7,811 short tons)
Length:	89.38 meters (293.2 ft) oa
Beam:	17.32 m (56.8 ft)
Draft:	8.5 m (28 ft)
Installed power:	3,619 indicated horsepower (2,699 kW)
Propulsion:	1 single-expansion steam engine
Speed:	12.83 knots (23.76 km/h; 14.76 mph)
Crew:	620

SMS Lissa was a unique ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s and 1870s, the only member of her class.

Design

General characteristics and machinery

Lissa was 86.76 meters (284.6 ft) long at the waterline and 89.38 m (293.2 ft) long overall. She had a beam of 17.32 m (56.8 ft) and an average draft of 8.5 m (28 ft). She displaced 7,086 metric tons (6,974 long tons; 7,811 short tons). Her hull and most of the upper works, including the casemate, were wooden with iron plating attached, though the sides on either end of the casemate were iron-built. The ship was fitted with a ram bow. She had a crew of 620 officers and enlisted men.

Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion, horizontal, 2-cylinder steam engine that drove a single screw propeller. The number and type of her coal-fired boilers have not survived, though they were trunked into a single funnel located amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of 12.83 knots (23.76 km/h; 14.76 mph) from 3,619 indicated horsepower (2,699 kW). To supplement the steam engine, Lissa was originally fitted with a full ship rig with 3,112 square meters (33,500 sq ft). In 1886, her rigging was cut down significantly to 1,404 m² (15,110 sq ft).

Armament and armor

Lissa was a casemate ship, and she was armed with a main battery of twelve 9-inch (229 mm) breech-loading guns manufactured by Krupp's Essen Works. Ten of these were mounted in a central, armored battery that fired on the broadside only, with the gun ports 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) above the waterline. The other two guns were placed in a smaller redoubt mounted directly above the main casemate that hung over the lower casemate and allowed for limited end-on fire for some of the guns. She also carried several smaller guns, including four 8-pounder muzzle-loading, rifled (MLR) guns and two 3-pounder MLR guns. The ship's armored belt was composed of wrought iron plate that was 152 mm (6 in) thick, backed with 770 mm (30.3 in) of wood. The main battery casemate had 127 mm (5.0 in) of iron plating, backed with 724 mm (28.5 in) of wood. Transverse bulkheads on either end of the casemate were 114 mm (4.5 in) thick.

Service history

Lissa was laid down on 27 June 1867 at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) shipyard in San Marco. She was launched on 25 February 1869 and began fitting out work. The following month, Kaiser Franz Joseph visited the shipyard where Lissa was being built. Completion of the ship was delayed due to limited budgets for the Navy and the significant expense of importing the vessel's armor plate from Britain, and Lissa was not completed until May 1871.

By 1880, the ship's hull was badly rotten, and so Lissa was taken into drydock at the Pola Arsenal, where the shipyard workers stripped off much of the vessel's armor plate to replace the deteriorated timber with new wood. The work was completed the following year, allowing the ship to return to service. While in drydock, the ship's armament was also revised; the original twelve 9-inch guns were retained, but the light battery was completely revised. The old MLRs were replaced with four 9 cm (3.5 in) 24-caliber guns and a pair of 7 cm (2.8 in) 15-cal. guns, and three 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns and a pair of 25 mm (0.98 in) auto-cannon were added.

Lissa was stricken from the naval register on 13 November 1892, and was broken up for scrap between 1893 and 1895.