NMS Smeul

History
Austria-Hungary
Name: Tb 83 F
Builder: Ganz & Danubius
Laid down: 1913
Launched: 1914
Commissioned: 1915
Fate: Given to Romania as reparations, 1920
Romania
Name: Smeul
Namesake: Romanian mythological creature
Commissioned: 1920
Out of service: 1944
Reinstated: 1946
Fate: Broken up, 1960
Soviet Union
Name: Toros
Commissioned: 1944
Fate: Returned to Romania, 1945
General characteristics
Displacement: 266 tons
Length: 58.8 m (192 ft 11 in)
Beam: 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Draft: 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h)
Range: 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km)
Complement: 38
Armament:

World War I

World War II

  • 2 x 88 mm naval guns
  • 2 x 20 mm AA guns
  • 4 x 450 mm torpedo tubes

NMS Smeul was a torpedo boat of the Royal Romanian Navy which entered service in 1920. The ship initially served as Tb 83 F in the Austro-Hungarian Navy during World War I and was awarded to Romania as reparations after the war ended.[1]

Construction and career

A ship of the Năluca class, she displaced 266 tons and was initially armed with two 66 mm (2.6 in) naval guns and four 450 mm torpedo tubes. In 1939, one of her 66 mm guns was replaced by a 37 mm anti-aircraft gun and a further 20 mm anti-aircraft gun was also added. During World War II, she and her sister ship Năluca were rearmed with two 88 mm naval guns and two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Năluca was sunk by Soviet aircraft on 20 August 1944, but Smeul survived and after the 23 August 1944 coup, she was commissioned by the Soviet Navy as Toros. In October 1945, she was returned to Romania. After being refitted at the Galați shipyard, she was recommissioned in 1946 and finally broken up in 1960.[2]

Sister ship Năluca

While fighting on the Axis side during World War II, she was involved in the minelaying operation of the Bulgarian coast in October 1941[3] and escorted the Romanian minelayers Amiral Murgescu and Dacia when they laid mines near Odessa in June 1942.[4] In May 1944, she helped evacuate German and Romanian troops from the Crimea. Her sister ship Năluca, aided by the motor torpedo boats Viscolul and Vijelia, sank the Soviet submarine Shch-206 on 9 July 1941.[5]

World War I counterpart

French torpedo boat of the 1880s, similar to the initial Smeul
Hotchkiss 37 mm revolving cannon

NMS Smeul was initially the name of a much smaller torpedo boat, part of a class of three, commissioned by the Romanian Navy in 1888. She was built in France, measuring 36.78 meters in length, displacing 56 tons, with a top speed of 20 knots and a crew of 20. Armament consisted of two five-barrelled 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns and two 356 mm torpedo tubes. In 1907, she was rebuilt and modified, her boilers and chimneys being reduced from two to one.[6][7][8] On 30 September 1916, near the Romanian port of Sulina, the German submarine UB-42 launched a torpedo at Smeul as the latter was escorting the minesweeping motorboats Irina and Flora. However, the torpedo missed and the Romanian warship counterattacked, damaging the submarine's periscope and conning tower and forcing her to retreat. This was the only naval engagement at sea of the Romanian Navy during the entire war, due in part to Smeul being the only Romanian sea-going warship able to engage an enemy ship in combat.[9][10][11] Smeul capsized and sank on 16 April 1917.[12]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ S. V. Patyanin, M. S. Barabanov. Korabli Vtoroy mirovoy voyny. VMS Balkanskih gosudarstv i stran Vostochnogo Sredizemnomorya (World War II ships. Ships of Balkan and East Mediterranean countries), p. 21-22 (in Russian)
  2. ↑ M. J. Whitley, Destroyers of World War II, p. 226
  3. ↑ John Smillie, World War II Sea War, Volume 4: Germany Sends Russia to the Allies, p. 323
  4. ↑ Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell World War II Sea War, Volume 6: The Allies Halt the Axis Advance, p. 268
  5. ↑ Antony Preston, Warship 2001-2002, pp. 72 and 84
  6. ↑ Robert Gardiner, Conway's All the world Fighting Ships 1906-1921, pp. 419-421
  7. ↑ Frederick Thomas Jane, Jane's fighting ships, p. 485
  8. ↑ Navypedia: NĂLUCA torpedo boats (1888)
  9. ↑ Constantin Cumpănă, Corina Apostoleanu, Amintiri despre o flotă pierdută, Volumul II – Voiaje neterminate (Memories of a lost fleet, Volume II - Unfinished journeys) (in Romanian)
  10. ↑ Revista de istorie, Volume 40, pp. 681-682 (in Romanian)
  11. ↑ Cristian Crăciunoiu, Romanian navy torpedo boats, pp. 22-24
  12. ↑ Constantin Cumpănă, Corina Apostoleanu, Amintiri despre o flotă pierdută, Volumul II – Voiaje neterminate (Memories of a lost fleet, Volume II - Unfinished journeys) (in Romanian)
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