Expedition To The Hungarian Warship That Sank 90 Years Ago

On 10 June 1918, at dawn, two Italian motorboats equipped with torpedoes detected warship SMS Saint Stephen of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the open waters of the Adriatic Sea. Corvette captain Luigi Rizzo, commander of one of the motorboats gave the order to fire the torpedoes, which hit the Tegethoff-class battleship at half past three in the morning, sharp.

In just a few minutes, the 152 m long and 27.9 m wide vessel  the displacement of which was 20,000 tons  was flooded and even though there were attempts to tow it ashore, at 6.05 in the morning it turned over on its side and sank in only seven minutes. From the 1,087 navy men serving on the warship, 85 sailors and 4 officers had lost their lives. The Hungarian soldiers have been resting at the bottom of the sea to this day.

In the past decades there were several expeditions to the Adriatic Sea, but there is still a lot to explore around the sunken combat ship. At least this is what Mr József Zelenák, president and trainer of the trainers’ board of the Hungarian Divers’ Federation reckons  in February, he decided to organize an expedition to the site on the 90th anniversary of the sinking of warship Saint Stephen. Dr. Tamás Balogh, president of the Naval History and Ship Modelling Club of the Scientific and Information Dissemination Association embraced the idea immediately, and the two men contacted the Hungarian Defence Forces with the plan of the expedition, since on the occasion of the anniversary they want to provide an opportunity for Hungarian military divers as well to dive to the wrecks of the former warship.

The honourable task has been assigned to the divers of HDF 1st Honvéd Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Warship Battalion, who have started the preparations in early August for the so-called Trimix gas deep dive.

The leaders of the expedition met with Lieutenant General (Ret.) Dr. József Holló, the general director of HDF Institute and Museum of Military History (HM HIM) in early August. At the meeting General Holló assured the organizers of the exploration of his support, and also told that HM HIM would like to place a commemorative plaque beside the warship laying at a depth of 66 m. Getting this granite plaque down would be the task of the military divers, as a part of the so-called commemorative dive. In addition to this task, the military divers will participate in every assignment of the expedition, of course, namely in the exploration of the so-called wreck zone around the wreck, and the assessment of the condition of the former warship.

Based on current information, the commemorative dive planned for 2 October will be attended by Defence Minister Dr. Imre Szekeres, and the Austrian and Croatian defence ministers as well on the site.