| KAISER FRANZ JOSEPH I. |
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| HISTORY |
The armoured cruiser „Kaiser Franz Joseph I.“ was built in Terst in 1888-1890. The ship with the weight of 4030 tons,
length 98, width 14,8 and draught 5,6 meters was launched on the 18th May 1889. It was able to reach the maximum of 19
knots due to a pair of piston steam machines with the 2x4900 of horsepower and capacity of 600 tons of coal. At
economical speed, the range of the voyage was 3200 nautical miles and for safety during its voyage, the ship was armed
by cannons (about twenty cannons and four machine guns) and torpedos (three heads). „Kaiser Franz Joseph I.“ sailed
through the waters of the Northern Sea in 1895 and two years later it was even in China. It sailed through the waters
of Eastern Asia from 1905 to 1908, while during the WWI. it was anchored in Boka Kotorska Bay as a guard ship to
protect the bay. After the end of the war, it was agreed at the peace conference of the Allies that the former
Austrian-Hungarian fleet will be allocated to the British, French and Italians, and so all the ships in Boka were
disarmed and most of the crews were disembarked. All artillery ammunition from all the ships was loaded on the cruiser
„Franz Joseph I.“, which fell to the French as a war booty.“ On the 19th October 1919, the ship was attached to the
anchor buoy between the Herceg Novi and the cape Oštro. As a consequence of a storm, „Franz Joseph I.“ broke away from
the buoy and it simply...sank under the heavy load. |
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| EXPEDITION "KAISER FRANZ JOSEPH I." |
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The Expedition Cruiser „Kaiser Franz Joseph I.“ took place in the Kotorska Bay
in 30.9. - 4.10. 2007, which has not been accessible to public for 97 years.
Divers from the Czech Republic (11) , Slovenia (2) , Croatia (2), and Serbia (1)
participated in it. The preparation lasted for 1,5 years. For diving, it was
necessary to obtain the consent of 9 ministries of the Republic of Croatia. The
shipwreck is situated in the depth of 41 m. It lies on its left side and is
quite well preserved. Only the work of the company Brodospas left its traces.
This company used to ransack ships in Jadran for the communist Croatian
government. In the framework of the expedition, we managed to shoot and
photograph much material, which is going to be processed for another episode of
the TV document about sunken ships of the Austrian-Hungarian navy. The SSI
Adriatic Group participated in the expedition. The leader of the expedition and
the main organizer was the film documentarist Miloš Pilař. |
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