„Wien“ – the Austro - Hungarian battleship

The first Austro-Hungarian innovative battleships and the first designs of Chief Naval Engineer Siegfried Popper were the three “Monarch”-class battleships: “Monarch”, “Wien” and “Budapest”. Ppper was known as a member of the British “Institution of Naval Architects” and the German “Schiffbautechnischen Gesellschaft”, and was a doctor at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute. Due to the constant lack of funds in the naval budget, Popper could not build very competitive battleships. Therefore, these ships are classified as coastal defense battleships, but the task of the Austro-Hungarian fleet was exactly that - to defend the coasts of the Adriatic Sea. And the “Monarch”-class ships performed these functions perfectly. But due to the long construction time, the ships were already obsolete by the time of their transfer to service, their main artillery was already too weak to defend the ports, and the “Monarchs” were unsuitable for open sea operations due to their low board height, weak armament and low speed. During World War I these ships were used only for shelling the enemy's coasts. Due to their low draft, these small battleships were able to come close to the shore, which larger and more innovative battleships could not do due to the danger of submarine attacks and mines. The keel of "Wien" was laid on 16.02.1983 at the shipyard "Stabilimento Tecnico" in Triestino, launched on 07.07.1895, handed over to the fleet on 13.05.1987. 20.05.1897 sailed from Poli to England for the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. On the way the battleship was visited by the Portuguese royal couple. 06.14 the ship participated in the parade in Portsmouth, 07.19 returned to Poly. 02.09.1987 sailed with visits to the ports of the Levant, returning in April 1898 to be docked in Poly. In 1899 - 1900 voyages in the Adriatic Sea and along the coast of Greece. 16.11.1917 "Wien" and "Budapest", 9 destroyers, 5 trawlers and 3 flying boats set out to shell the Italian batteries near Kortelaz. During the 4-day shelling, “Wien” was hit 7 times, all on superstructures. None of those hits were a threat, but during the shelling the ships were attacked by enemy torpedo boats and aircraft, but without consequence. On 10.12.1917 two Italian destroyers "9.PN" and "11.PN" towed two Italian torpedo boats "MAS 9" and "MAS 13" to the port of Trieste, which attacked the battleships stationed in the port at 2.30 on the night of the 11th. Two torpedoes from “MAS 9” hit “Wien's” starboard side. The ship heeled sharply and, despite the flooding of the port side compartments, capsized five minutes later. 38 sailors were killed, 17 were injured. After the war, the remains of "Wien" were raised by the Italians and given for scraping.
 
A medium-sized, medium-complexity, well-designed and maximally detailed ship model for this scale, suitable only for intermediate and advanced modelers.