SMS Budapest SMS " Budapest " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship Budapest " ) was a built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy in the 1890s . After their commissioning , " Budapest " and the two other " Monarch " - class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s . " Budapest " and her sisters formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro - Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned pre - dreadnought battleship s at the turn of the century . In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned during the annual summer training exercises . After the start of World War I , " Budapest " was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters . The division was sent to Cattaro in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin and French artillery that was bombarding the port , and they remained there until mid - 1917 . " Budapest " and her sister were sent to Trieste in August and bombarded Italian fortifications in the Gulf of Trieste . The ship was briefly decommissioned in early 1918 and became an accommodation ship , but she was fitted with a large siege howitzer for shore bombardment shortly afterwards and recommissioned . A shortage of ammunition caused the gun to be removed before it could be used , and " Budapest " reverted to her previous role . The ship was awarded to Great Britain by the Paris Peace Conference in 1920 . The British sold her for scrap , and she was broken up in Italy beginning in 1921 . Description and construction . At only maximum displacement , the " Monarch " class was less than half the size of the battleship s of other major navies at the time and were officially designated as coast defense ships . The Austro - Hungarian government believed that the role of its navy was solely to defend her coast . " Budapest " had an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of . Her two 4 - cylinder vertical triple - expansion steam engines produced a total of using steam from 16 Belleville boiler s . These gave the ship a maximum speed of . " Budapest " s maximum load of of coal gave her a range of at a speed of . She was manned by 26 officers and 397 enlisted men , a total of 423 personnel . The armament of the " Monarch " class consisted of four Krupp K / 94 guns mounted in two twin - gun turret s , one each fore and aft of the superstructure . The ships carried 80 rounds for each gun . Their secondary armament was six Škoda guns located in casemate s in the superstructure . Defense against torpedo boat s was provided by ten quick - firing ( QF ) Škoda guns and four 47 - millimeter QF Hotchkiss gun s . The ships also mounted two torpedo tube s , one on each broadside . Each torpedo tube was provided with two torpedo es . The ship ' s nickel - steel waterline armor belt was thick , and the gun turrets were protected by of armor . The casemates had thick sides while the conning tower had of armor . " Budapest " s deck armor was thick . The " Monarch " - class ships were ordered in May 1892 with " Budapest " and " Wien " to be built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste . Both ships were laid down on 16 February 1893 , the first ships in the class to be laid down . " Budapest " was launched on 27 April 1896 by Countess Marie Széchényí - Andrássy , wife of the Governor of Fiume , and commissioned on 12 May 1898 . Service history . Peace time . " Budapest " and her sisters formed the Navy ' s 1st Capital Ship Division ( " I . Schwere Division " ) , and " Budapest " conducted the first wireless telegraphy trials in the Navy when she was briefly fitted with a Marconi radio in December 1898 . In late 1899 the division made a training cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean where they made port visits in Greece , Lebanon , Turkey and Malta . In early 1902 they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria , Spain , France , Italy , Corfu , and Albania . The ship was fitted with a Siemens - Braun radio early the following year . The ships of the division were inspected by Archduke Franz Ferdinand , the heir to the throne , in March 1903 at Gravosa . Shortly afterwards , " Budapest " , " Wien " , the battleship and the destroyer made a cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean . In 1904 , the " Monarch " - class ships formed the 2nd Capital Ship Division , and they took part in the 1904 cruise of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas as well as training exercises in which the three s engaged the " Budapest " and her sisters in simulated combat . Those maneuvers marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro - Hungarian Navy . The " Monarch " s were relegated to the newly formed Reserve Squadron on 1 January 1906 and were only recommissioned for the annual summer exercises . They participated in a fleet review by Archduke Franz Ferdinand in September conducted in the Kolocepski Channel near Šipan . The ships were briefly recommissioned at the beginning of 1913 as the 4th Division after the start of the Second Balkan War , but were decommissioned again on 10 March . World War I . With the beginning of World War I the three " Monarch " s were recommissioned as the 5th Division . They were sent to the Bay of Kotor in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen bombarding the Austro - Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it . " Budapest " and her sisters arrived on 13 August , but their guns could not elevate enough to engage all of the enemy artillery , which was reinforced by eight French guns on 19 October . The battleship was summoned to deal with the guns two days later , and she managed to knock out several French guns and forced the others to withdraw by 27 October . The " Monarch " s remained at Cattaro until mid - 1917 to deter any further attacks . In August , " Budapest " and " Wien " were transferred to Trieste to serve as guard ship s against Italian commando raids . Each ship was fitted with a anti - aircraft gun after their arrival on 26 August to counter intense Italian air attacks . " Wien " was damaged by a near miss on 5 September , and both ships withdrew to Pola on 12 September . They returned to Trieste on 30 October and sortie d into the Gulf of Trieste on 16 November to attack Italian coastal defenses at Cortellazzo , near the mouth of the Piave River . " Budapest " and " Wien " opened fire at 10 : 35 at a range of about and knocked out most of the Italian guns after about a half hour . Their bombardment was interrupted by several unsuccessful Italian air attacks before a more coordinated attack was made by five MAS torpedo boats and five aircraft around 13 : 30 . This was also unsuccessful , and the last Italian coast defense gun was knocked out an hour later . The ships had sustained only minor damage from several hits and near - misses , and not a single sailor was wounded . Emperor Karl inspected " Budapest " on 19 November at Trieste . Anxious to revenge themselves against the Austro - Hungarians , the Royal Italian Navy ( " Regia Marina " ) planned an attack on the two ships in their berths in the Bay of Muggia , near Trieste , by MAS boats . On the night of 9 / 10 December , two MAS boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected , and fired torpedoes at " Wien " and " Budapest " . The torpedos fired at the " Budapest " struck the mole of the seaplane station , but " Wien " was hit twice and capsized in five minutes , killing 46 of the crew . " Budapest " was scheduled for a shore bombardment on 12 December , but was postponed for a week by bad weather . Escorted by the light cruiser , six destroyers , nine torpedo boats and a dozen minesweeper s , " Budapest " and the pre - dreadnought bombarded the Castellazzo fortifications on 19 December . The ship transferred to Pola two days later , and she was decommissioned on 11 March 1918 . She became the accommodation ship for the submarine staff ( " Wohnschiff der U - Bootleitung " ) . Just over a week later , Admiral Franz von Keil proposed that a 38 - centimeter siege howitzer be installed to bombard the Castellazzo fortifications . Little time was wasted , and removal of the forward gun turret and its barbette began on 26 March . The installation of the gun was completed on 4 April although testing did not begin until 5 June when three shots were fired . The ship was recommissioned two days later with a reduced crew , and a practice shoot was conducted with unsatisfactory results on 6 August . Another training exercise scheduled for 20 August had to be cancelled for lack of ammunition . The howitzer was removed on 11 October and sent to the Army on 17 October . " Budapest " resumed her former role and remained at Pola . She was handed over to Great Britain as war reparations in January 1920 and broken up for scrap in Italy in 1921 . Notes . Explanatory notes Citations