SMS Warasdiner

SMS Warasdiner was launched in 1913 as the Lung Tuan, intended for sale to China. She was taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1914, renamed and rearmed.

Construction and design
In 1912, the China placed an order for a single destroyer with the Austrian shipyard Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) of Trieste. The design of the destroyer, to be named Lung Tuan, was based on that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's Huszár-class destroyer, which had entered service between 1905 and 1911.

Like the Huszárs, Lung Tuan was to be powered by two triple expansion steam engines, fed by four Yarrow boilers, rated at 6000 ihp, driving two shafts, although at 30 kn, the ship was slightly faster than the 28 kn Huszár class. The ship's hull was 68 m long at the waterline and 67 m between perpendiculars, with a beam of 6.2 m and a draught of 1.7 m. Displacement was 386 t standard and 400 t deep load. The ship was to be armed with two 12-pounder (76 mm) and four 3-pounder (47 mm) guns, all supplied by Armstrong Whitworth of Great Britain and two 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo tubes.

Lung Tuan was laid down in 1912 and launched in 1913. Although the Huszár class and therefore Lung Tuan were obsolete by 1913, the Chinese government ordered a further 12 destroyers from STT that year, partly due to the low price (£16,500 per ship).

Service
Lung Tuan was virtually complete when Austria-Hungary declared war with Serbia on 28 July 1914, beginning the First World War. Lung Tuan was seized by Austria-Hungary on 1 August and towed to Pola where she was re-armed with Austrian weapons, receiving a gun outfit of two 66 mm L/45 Skoda gun and four 6.6 cm L/30 guns, together with four 45 cm torpedo tubes. Renamed the Warasdiner, the ship entered service with the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 10 September 1914.

Warasdiner served for the remainder of the First World War, sinking the French submarine Fresnel off Cattaro on 5 December 1915. She was ceded to Italy in 1920 and scrapped.