The ship was powered by a single 2-cylinder, horizontal marine steam engine that drove a screw propeller. The number and type of boilers is not known, but smoke from the boilers was vented through a single funnel located amidships, between the fore- and main mast. The propulsion system was capable of generating 1,590 indicated horsepower (1,190 kW), for a top speed of 11.58 knots (21.45 km/h; 13.33 mph). The ship was fitted with a three-masted sailing rig to supplement the steam engine on long voyages.[2]
Fasana was armed with a main battery of two 21 cm (8.3 in) 20-caliberbreechloading guns manufactured by Krupp. She also carried four 8-pounder guns. By 1880, the ship had been rearmed entirely. She was then armed with four 15 cm (5.9 in), 26-caliber Krupp guns and three 7 cm (2.8 in), 15-caliber guns.[2]
Service history
The keel for Fasana was laid down at the Navale Adriatico shipyard in Trieste on 9 October 1869, and she was launched on 1 September 1870. The ship was completed on 5 May 1871,[2] and was commissioned that year.[3] Upon entering service, Fasana was ordered to cruise to East Asia, in part to deliver the ratified treaties that had been agreed upon during an earlier diplomatic mission in 1869. Fasana sailed from Pola on 4 July and returned to Trieste to make preparations for the voyage. On the night of 7–8 August, she got underway, bound for Asia. She passed through Pelagosa on the way through the Adriatic Sea, and by 18 July, she had reached Port Said, Egypt. There, she entered the Suez Canal; she left the other end of the canal at Suez on 22 July, sailing for Aden.[4]
Fasana served in the active squadron in 1873, along with the ironcladLissa, which served as the squadron flagship, and the screw corvette Zrinyi and the gunboat Velebich. In early September, Fasana was sent to join Velebich off Spain, as a result of the Cantonal Revolution against the Spanish government[5]
Fasana remained in service with the active squadron into 1874, which saw a reshuffling of most of the other vessels in the unit. At that time, the squadron also included the ironcladKaiser, the screw frigateRadetzky, the screw corvette Frundsberg, and Velebich. Most of the ships were stationed in Pola in February, though Fasana and Velebich were still in Spanish waters at the time. Frundsberg, Kaiser, and the gunboat Dalmat were all sent to join them there in the coming weeks. Fasana met Kaiser in Gibraltar in early March, and the two ships returned to Barcelona, were they joined Frundsberg and Dalmat}. The four ships conducted shooting practice together while in the area. In April, Frundsberg and Kaiser joined Fasana to conduct two days of tactical maneuvers. The Austro-Hungarian ships patrolled the southern Spanish coast over the summer, and visited a number of Spanish ports, including Cadiz, Cartagena, Tarragona, and Valencia, along with Gibraltar and Tangier in Morocco.[6]
Fasana embarked on an overseas training cruise in 1881 to visit a number of countries in North and South America; she had aboard the graduating class of naval cadets aboard for the voyage.[7]
In 1887, Fasana made another voyage abroad, passing through the Suez Canal to visit the Persian Gulf, the East Indies, and various ports in East Asia. She returned home in 1888, and during this voyage, Archduke Leopold Ferdinand served aboard the ship as a cadet. The ship conducted the fourth Austro-Hungarian circumnavigation of the globe in 1889–1890.[8]
Fasana embarked on another cruise to the Pacific from 1893 to 1895, which included stops in India and Australia.[9]
Fasana was decommissioned in 1896,[3] and was struck from the naval register on 7 August 1897. She was then converted into a storage hulk. She was renamed Gamma on 7 August 1902, and was thereafter used to store naval mines. She served in this role through World War I, based at Pola, and following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, she was surrendered as a war prize and probably broken up in Italy in 1920.[2][10]
Benko, Jerolim Freiherrn, von, ed. (1873). "Bewegungen S. M. Kriegsschiffe vom September 1871 bis September 1872" [Movements of S. M. Warships from September 1871 to September 1872]. Jahrbuch der Kais. Kön. Kriegsmarine [Yearbook of the Imperial and Royal Navy]. Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn: 15–43.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN978-1-55753-034-9.
Ziegler, Johannes, ed. (1871). "Bewegungen S. M. Kriegsschiffe vom September 1870 bis September 1871" [Movements of S. M. Warships from September 1870 to September 1871]. Jahrbuch der Kais. Kön. Kriegsmarine [Yearbook of the Imperial and Royal Navy]. Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn: 13–27.
