SMS Zenta SMS " Zenta " was a small protected cruiser built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy in the late 1890s . She was lead ship of her class and named after the town of Senta . Design and description . " Zenta " was conceived to show the flag abroad . " Zenta " had an overall length of , a beam of and had a designed draft of . The ship displaced at normal load and at deep load . She had two four - cylinder vertical triple - expansion steam engine s , each driving a single propeller shaft . Steam for the engines was provided by eight Yarrow boilers and they made an average total of during her sea trials on 30 March 1899 . The average maximum speed during the trials was , but " Zenta " achieved a maximum speed of from . She carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of . " Zenta " s main armament consisted of eight 40 - caliber Škoda quick - firing gun s . Two of these were mounted fore and aft of the superstructure in single pivot mounts protected by gun shield s while the other six guns were mounted in casemate s on the sides of the hull . Her secondary armament comprised eight 44 - caliber Škoda guns and two 33 - caliber 4 . 7 - centimeter Hotchkiss gun s . Four of these guns were mounted on pivot mounts in the superstructure and the remaining guns were in casemates in the hull . She was also armed with two torpedo tube s mounted in the hull above the waterline . The ship was lightly protected by an armor deck that consisted of two layers of plates . Over the engine and boiler rooms the thickness doubled to a total of . The casemates were protected by of armor and the conning tower by two layers of armor plates . Service history . " Zenta " was laid down at the Pola Naval Arsenal on 8 August 1896 and she was launched on 18 August 1897 . The ship was completed on 25 May 1899 , commissioned three days later , and left Pola on 10 November 1899 for a cruise to Asia , calling at Port Said , Suez , Aden , and Colombo . She reached Singapore in January 1900 where she stayed for 14 days , continuing her voyage to Hong Kong , Macau , and onwards to Shanghai . Thereafter she went to Japan , visiting Nagasaki , Kagoshima , and Sasebo . Boxer Rebellion . News reached Austria - Hungary that the Boxer Rebellion in China was fast getting worse . " Zenta " was recalled to assist in the evacuation of international embassy staff as well as the Austro - Hungarian delegation . Seventy - five members of her crew were attached to the relief expedition led by Admiral Seymour , which headed for Tientsin . " Zenta " was joined by the armoured cruiser , and 160 sailors from both ships ( and two landed guns ) assisted German marines in the assaults on the Taku forts . " Zenta " had her commanding officer , Kapitän Eduard Thomann Edler von Montalmar , killed in the action . South American cruise . She returned home in December 1901 and was placed in reserve until October 1902 when she was sent on another foreign tour to Cape Town . From there she sailed for South America , to Montevideo and then to Buenos Aires , arriving in May 1903 . She then went to Rio de Janeiro in June before heading back across the Atlantic , visiting among other ports Funchal , Cadiz , Tangier , Malaga , Tunis and Corfu prior to returning home to Trieste . Thereafter she was placed in reserve and partook in annual naval exercises until the outbreak of the First World War . World War I . On 16 August 1914 the combined Anglo - French Fleet under Admiral Auguste Boué de Lapeyrère , made a sweep of the Adriatic Sea . " Zenta " was escorted by a destroyer blockading the coast of Montenegro . She was trapped by seventeen French and British naval units consisting of battleships and armoured cruisers , which prevented her escape North . After allowing the destroyer to get away , she was sunk by gunfire during the Battle of Antivari off the coast of Bar , Montenegro , with the loss of 179 lives . Surviving commander Paul Pachner , officers and crew swam ashore and were interned until 1916 ( the Anglo - French Fleet did not attempt to rescue any survivors ) . The imprisoned crew were Croats from Blato na Korčuli , Šolta , Tisno , Biograd na Moru , Bogomolje , Rab , Imotski , Hvar , Trogir , Split , Šibenik , Vela Luka , Sali and Zadar and two Montenegrins from Grbalj and Perast . Honors . To honor the heroic crew of this ship , a small bay ( formerly Kalafatić ) in Split was named after this ship .