SMS Boa

SMS Boa was a torpedo boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Built as a unit of the Python class, she was typical of the seagoing torpedo boats acquired by Austria-Hungary between 1896 and 1914. In 1910 she was renamed Torpedoboot 15.

Development
Boa and her sister ships, Python, Kigyo and Cobra, were the result of competitive tests between two torpedo boats built in 1895-96. Natter was built by the firm of F. Schichau at Elbing, while Viper was built by Yarrow on the Thames at Millbank. Admiralty (Marinesektion) officials were better satisfied with the performance of Viper, and four slightly larger examples were ordered from Yarrow.

Design
A steel-hulled vessel of 132 tons displacement, Boa measured 152 ft six inches (152 mm) in length with a beam of 15 ft and a draft of four feet six inches. Her reciprocating engines of 1800 hp gave a speed of 26 kn. Armament consisted of two 4.7 cm quick-firing guns and three 17.7 in torpedo tubes.

Service history
Launched on the Thames on 20 August 1898, Boa was completed on 24 September of that year. She and her sister ships formed a division of seagoing torpedo boats capable of challenging Italian forces in the event of war.

In 1910 a new nomenclature was introduced for all Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats. Existing names were discarded and replaced with numbers in the series Torpedoboot 1 to Torpedoboot 49. Boa was renamed Torpedoboot 15, abbreviated Tb 15.

During the First World War, Tb 15 was employed as a convoy escort and minesweeper. Allocated to Britain as a war reparation in 1920, she was immediately sold and scrapped in Italy.