SM UB - 47 SM " UB - 47 was a Type UB II submarine or U - boat for the German Imperial Navy ( ) during World War I . " UB - 47 " was sold to the Austro - Hungarian Navy ( ) during the war . In Austro - Hungarian service the " B " was dropped from her name and she was known as SM " U - 47 or U - XLVII as a member of the Austro - Hungarian " U - 43 " class . " UB - 47 " was ordered in July 1915 and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in September . " UB - 47 " was a little more than in length and displaced between , depending on whether surfaced or submerged . She was equipped to carry a complement of four torpedoes for her two bow torpedo tube s and had an deck gun . As part of a group of six submarines selected for Mediterranean service , " UB - 47 " was broken into railcar sized components and shipped to Pola where she was assembled and launched in June 1916 , and commissioned in July . Over the next year the U - boat sank twenty ships , which included the French battleship and two Cunard Line steamers in use as troopship s , and . The German Imperial Navy was having difficulties in finding trained submarine crews and offered to sell " UB - 47 " and a sister boat to the Austro - Hungarian Navy . After the terms were agreed to in June 1917 , both boats were handed over at Pola . When commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy , the " B " in her designation was dropped so that she became " U - 47 " or " U - XLVII " . She sank an additional three ships in Austro - Hungarian service through the end of the war . " U - 47 " was ceded to France as a war reparation in 1920 and broken at Bizerta that same year . Design and construction . The German UB II design improved upon the design of the UB I boats , which had been ordered in September 1914 . In service , the UB I boats were found to be too small and too slow . A major problem was that , because they had a single propeller shaft / engine combo , if either component failed , the U - boat became almost totally disabled . To rectify this flaw , the UB II boats featured twin propeller shafts and twin engines ( one shaft for each engine ) , which also increased the U - boat ' s top speed . The new design also included more powerful batteries , larger torpedo tubes , and a deck gun . As a UB II boat , " U - 47 " could also carry twice the torpedo load of her UB I counterparts , and nearly ten times as much fuel . To contain all of these changes the hull was larger , and the surface and submerged displacement was more than double that of the UB I boats . The Imperial German Navy ordered " UB - 47 " from AG Weser on 31 July 1915 as the final boat of a series of six UB II boats ( numbered from to " UB - 47 " ) , and the last UB II submarine numerically . " UB - 47 " was long and abeam . She had a single hull with saddle tank s and had a draft of when surfaced . She displaced while submerged but only on the surface . The submarine was equipped with twin diesel engines and twin electric motors — for surfaced and submerged running , respectively — that drove twin propeller shafts . " UB - 47 " had a surface speed of up to and could go as fast as while underwater . The U - boat could carry up to of diesel fuel , giving her a range of 6 , 940 nautical miles at 5 knots ( 12 , 850 km at 9 . 3 km / h ) . Her electric motors and batteries provided a range of 45 nautical miles at 4 knots ( 83 km at 7 . 4 km / h ) while submerged . " UB - 47 " was equipped with two bow torpedo tube s and could carry four torpedo es . The U - boat was also armed with an 88 mm / 26 ( 3 . 5 in ) deck gun and an machine gun . " UB - 47 " was laid down by AG Weser at its Bremen shipyard on 4 September 1915 . As one of six U - boats selected for service in the Mediterranean while under construction , " UB - 47 " was broken into railcar - sized components and shipped overland to the Austro - Hungarian port of Pola . Shipyard workers from Weser assembled the boat and her five sisters at Pola , where she was launched on 17 June . German Imperial Navy career . SM " UB - 47 " was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 4 July 1916 under the command of " Oberleutnant zur See " Wolfgang Steinbauer . " UB - 47 " , Steinbauer ' s first U - boat command , was assigned to the Navy ' s Pola Flotilla ( ) in which she remained throughout her German career . Although the flotilla was based in Pola , the site of the main Austro - Hungarian Navy base , boats of the flotilla operated out of the Austro - Hungarian base at Cattaro which was located farther south and closer to the Mediterranean . German U - boats typically returned to Pola only for repairs . On 17 August , Steinbauer and " UB - 47 " achieved their first success when they sank the Italian steamer south of Cape Matapan . Although Italy and Germany would not formally be at war for another ten days , German U - boats in the Mediterranean routinely attacked Italian vessels by posing as Austro - Hungarian submarines and flying the ensign of that country ' s navy . " Stampalia " was an ocean liner of that had formerly been in passenger service between New York and Genoa , and had been one of the first Italian merchant vessels to be armed against submarine attacks . At the time of her sinking , she was in the service of the Italian government but was not carrying any passengers ; no casualties from " Stampalia " were reported in the attack . Three weeks later , Steinbauer and " UB - 47 " scored a triple kill , sinking three ships on the same day . The British steamer " Butetown " , en route from Malta to Mudro , was carrying coal and other cargo when she was sent down west - southwest of Cape Matapan on 8 September . " UB - 47 " attacked " Llangorse " , another British steamer , away , sending the ship and her cargo of Canadian oats headed to Salonica to the bottom . The third ship was the Greek ship " Spetzai " , headed from Cyprus to Liverpool when sunk in the same vicinity . There were no casualties from any of the three ships ; the crews of " Butetown " and " Llangorse " were rescued and landed at Marseilles on 16 September . On 4 October , Steinbauer sank the largest ship of his career when " UB - 47 " torpedoed the 1911 Cunard Line steamer at position , east of Malta . The long , wide " Franconia " — nicknamed the " Bath Ship " in civilian days because of the number of passenger baths and showers — was , at , the fifth largest ship sunk by a U - boat during World War I . " Franconia " had been in service as a troopship since February 1915 but was not carrying troops at the time of the attack . The hospital ship picked up 302 survivors from " Franconia " ; 12 men were killed in the attack . " UB - 47 " s next success came a week later , on 11 October , when the 5 , 002 - ton British steamer " Crosshill " was sunk west of Malta with the loss of four men . A German military announcement of 20 October proclaiming Steinbauer ' s sinking of the ship reported that " Crosshill " s cargo included horses and Serbian groom s . The following day , " Sebek " , a British ship headed to Alexandria , was torpedoed southeast of Gozo . Although the German Admiralty reported her sunk , " Sebek " s captain was able to ground his ship and prevent it from sinking . On 14 October , " UB - 47 " sank five small Italian sailing vessels — ranging in size from 32 to 80 tons — near Syracuse , Sicily . The next day , " UB - 47 " closed out the month of October with the sinking of the Greek steamer " Avis " . " UB - 47 " s tally of sunken ships for the month of October came to 24 , 776 gross register tons , which accounted for nearly 20 % of the total sunk by all German U - boats in the Mediterranean . On patrol in the Aegean Sea on 27 December , Steinbauer came across the French pre - dreadnought battleship . Although screened by light cruiser s and naval trawler s , Steinbauer was , nonetheless , able to sink the 11 , 100 - ton displacement ship east of Cerigo . Two men were killed in the initial explosion and another two men died in the aftermath ; " Gaulois " s normal complement was 631 men . Five days later , New Year ' s Day 1917 , " UB - 47 " torpedoed and sank the Cunard Line ship — in service as a British troopship — at position , from Cape Matapan . Under the command of Captain William T . Turner , who had been in command of when that liner was sunk in May 1915 , the 14 , 278 - ton " Ivernia " was ferrying troops to Salonica when sunk by " UB - 47 " . Because of the heavy weather at the time of " Ivernia " s sinking , 120 officers and men and 33 crewmen were killed in the attack . Like " Franconia " , both " Gaulois " and " Ivernia " were among the largest ships sunk by U - boats ; " Ivernia " was the 20th largest sunk . Two days after the attack on " Ivernia " , " UB - 47 " torpedoed and damaged the British steamer , killing one person in the process . The " Huntsend " was the former North German Lloyd liner " Lützow " which had been captured by British naval forces in the Mediterranean in August 1914 , and , like " UB - 47 " , had been built by AG Weser in Bremen . On 1 March 1917 , " UB - 47 " torpedoed and damaged the British steamer " Euterpe " near Suda Bay , killing two men in the process . A week later , on 8 March , Steinbauer sank his last ship at the helm of " UB - 47 " , when " Georgian " was sent to the bottom from Cape Sidero . The 1890 British ship , rated at 5 , 088 gross register tons , was carrying government stores ; five of her crew perished in the attack . On 1 April , " Oberleutnant zur See " Hans Hermann Wendlandt replaced Steinbauer as commanding officer of " UB - 47 " . A week after assuming his first U - boat command , the 30 - year - old Wendlandt scored his first success by sinking two Greek steamers on the same day . " Livatho " was sailing in ballast from Salonica for New York when she was sunk northwest of Crete by an explosive charge placed by " UB - 47 " s crew . " Nestos " was carrying a load of wheat from New York for Piraeus when shelled and sunk from Sapientza . Three days later , the British ship " Cyfarthfa " was torpedoed from Cerigotto . The master of " Cyfarthfa " , which had been headed from Oran to Salonica , was taken prisoner by Wendlandt . Wendlandt and " UB - 47 " sank the Greek destroyer , a of displacement , on 27 June . Although a part of the Royal Hellenic Navy , " Doxa " had been seized by the French in October 1916 and was operating as a French ship with an all - French crew when torpedoed and sunk by " UB - 47 " in the Straits of Messina ; 29 sailors died in the attack . Three days later , Wendlandt sank two Italian sailing ships of about each while east of Sicily . Five days later , " UB - 47 " attacked the Japanese steamer " Shinsan Maru " , from Karachi with a cargo of wheat for delivery to Italy . Wendlandt torpedoed the 1898 ship between Crete and Sicily . " Shinsan Maru " was the last ship sunk by " UB - 47 " in her German service . On 21 July , " UB - 47 " was decommissioned at Pola and handed over to the Austro - Hungarian Navy . In her German Imperial Navy career of just over a year , " UB - 47 " sank twenty merchant ships totaling , damaged three ships of , and sank two warships with a combined displacement of . Austro - Hungarian Navy service . In November 1916 , the German Imperial Navy , having a hard time finding trained submarine crews , inquired to find out if its ally Austria - Hungary was interested in purchasing some of its Mediterranean submarines . A general agreement led to protracted negotiations , which stalled over the outflow of Austro - Hungarian gold reserves to Germany . But , with all of the details worked out , the two parties agreed on the sale of " UB - 47 " and sister ship to Austria - Hungary in June 1917 . When handed over by the Germans on 21 July , " UB - 47 " was in a " worn out condition " . Despite the rough condition of the boat , the U - boat was commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy on 30 July 1917 as SM " U - 47 " , dropping the " B " from the U - boat ' s former designation . " Linienschiffsleutnant " Otto Molitor was installed as the U - boat ' s new commander . " U - 47 " s first success in Austro - Hungarian service came nearly six months later when , on 12 January 1918 , Molitor torpedoed the French steamer " Mica " from Saigon just short of her destination of Milos . In early April , " Linienschiffsleutnant " Freiherr Hugo von Seyffertitz replaced Molitor as commander of " U - 47 " , and a month later , von Seyffertitz achieved his first success as " U - 47 " s commander . The British steamer " Itinda " , a ship built in 1900 , was sunk north of Susa , Libya , with one man killed . The next victory for von Seyffertitz and " U - 47 " came in September . On the 20th " U - 47 " launched a torpedo attack against the submarine off Cattaro , sinking the French boat . At the end of the war , " U - 47 " was at Cattaro . In her Austro - Hungarian Navy career , " U - 47 " sank two merchant ships of 6 , 467 gross register tons , and sank a single warship of displacement . " U - 47 " was ceded to France as a war reparation in 1920 , towed to Bizerta , and broken up there within a year . Ships sunk or damaged . As the German " UB - 47 " . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > damaged but not sunk