SMS Panther was a torpedo cruiser

Torpedo gunboat

In late 19th-century naval terminology, torpedo gunboats or, in north European usage, torpedo cruisers, were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats...

 (Torpedoschiff) of the Austro-Hungarian Navy

Austro-Hungarian Navy

The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....

. She and her sister ship, Leopard,

SMS Leopard

SMS Leopard was a torpedo cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She and her sister ship, SMS Panther, were part of a program to build up Austria-Hungary's fleet of torpedo craft in the 1880s.-Design:...

 were part of a program to build up Austria-Hungary's fleet

Naval fleet

A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....

 of torpedo craft in the 1880s.

Design

The Navy Commander (Marinekommandant) of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck

Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck

Maximilian Daublebsky Freiherr von Sterneck zu Ehrenstein was an Austrian admiral who served as the chief administrator of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1883 until his death.-Biography:...

, outlined in a memorandum

Memorandum

A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...

 of 8 September 1884 the requirements for a cruiser equipped with a reinforced ram

Naval ram

A naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon consisted of an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between six and twelve feet in length...

 bow

Bow (ship)

The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

 for ramming

Ramming

In warfare, ramming is a technique that was used in air, sea and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram's momentum...

 as well as torpedoes for attacks on larger warships. Such vessels would also be small and fast enough to undertake patrol

Patrol

A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as police officers or soldiers, that are assigned to monitor a specific geographic area.- Military :...

 and reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

 duties. They were originally classified as "torpedo ships" (Torpedoschiff) - equivalent of a torpedo cruiser

Torpedo gunboat

In late 19th-century naval terminology, torpedo gunboats or, in north European usage, torpedo cruisers, were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats...

 in other navies. In 1903 they were reclassified as 3rd Class Cruisers, then in 1909 as small cruisers (Kleine Kreuzer).

When funds for two ships were approved by the Austro-Hungarian Reichsrat

Reichsrat (Austria)

The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...

, bids were solicited from British builders. The order went to the firm of W.G. Armstrong at Elswick

Elswick, Tyne and Wear

Elswick is a ward of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in the western part of the city, bordering the river Tyne. One of the earliest references to the coal mining industry of the north east occurs in 1330, when it was recorded that the Prior of Tynemouth let a colliery, called Heygrove, at...

, Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

 and its chief designer, William Henry White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

 (afterwards the British Director of Naval Construction from 1885 to 1902).

As designed by White, Panther was a steel-hulled vessel of 1,557 tons displacement. She measured 240 feet nine inches in length with a beam of 34 feet 11 inches and a draft (as
completed) of 14 feet five inches. Propulsion

Marine propulsion

Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a ship or boat across water. While paddles and sails are still used on some smaller boats, most modern ships are propelled by mechanical systems consisting a motor or engine turning a propeller, or less frequently, in jet...

 was supplied by two compound steam engines with four cylindrical boilers, giving a speed of 19.4 knots. The crew comprised 186 officers and men.

Original armament of Panther consisted of two 12cm Krupp guns, four 4.7cm quick-firing guns and six 4.7cm revolver cannon with four 14-inch torpedo tubes. The torpedo tubes were located singly, in the bow and stern and at either beam. Panther was built with as pronounced a ram bow as the larger Austro-Hungarian warships of the time.

Service

Panther was launched on 13 June 1885. The Austro-Hungarian Navy's supervising naval architect, Siegfried Popper, found that the ship's draft aft was four feet 11 inches more than intended. After lengthy disagreement, White and the shipyard admitted the error, which was partly offset through a shift in the cruiser's weight distribution, so that the excessive draft aft was reduced to two feet five inches.

Upon completion, Panther was leader of a torpedo boat flotilla

Flotilla

A flotilla , or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers...

. Panther and Leopard represented Austria-Hungary at the Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 World's Exposition in 1888. In 1891 Panther's four 4.7cm guns were replaced with ten newer-model guns of the same caliber. She was reclassified as a 3rd Class cruiser in 1903 and as a small cruiser (Kleiner Kreuzer) in 1909. Also in 1909, the aft torpedo tube was removed and four 6.6cm guns added to her armament.

When the First World War began in 1914, Panther was moved from Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

 to Cattaro. She took part in the bombardment

Bombardment

A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery...

 of enemy batteries

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

 on Mount Lovcen

Mount Lovcen

Lovćen is a mountain and national park in southwestern Montenegro.The Mount Lovćen rises from the borders of the Adriatic basin closing the long ang twisting bays of Boka Kotorska and making the hinterland to the coastal town of Kotor...

 (which dominated Cattaro Bay) on 9 September 1914 and 8/9 January 1916. In May 1917 she was moved to Pola

Pula

Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...

as a seagoing training ship for the submarine commander's school.

Panther was withdrawn from service in October 1918 only weeks before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Allocated to Britain as a war reparation in 1920, she was immediately sold and scrapped in Italy.