SMS Tiger was a torpedo cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the mid-1880s. An enlarged and improved version of the , she was part of a program to build up Austria-Hungary's fleet of torpedo craft in the 1880s. The Panther class, purchased from a British shipyard, was acquired in part to gain experience building cruisers of the type; this provided the basis for the design of Tiger. She was laid down at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in October 1886, she was launched in June 1887, and was completed in March 1888. The ship was armed with a battery of four guns and three torpedo tubes, and was capable of speeds in excess of .
Tigers career was fairly uneventful; for the majority of her active duty career, she was activated only for the summer training maneuvers in June and July. She participated in a major cruise to Germany in 1890, which saw numerous visits to other countries along the way. In 1897, she took part in an international naval demonstration off the island of Crete to prevent enforce limits on the Greco-Turkish War. In 1906 she was converted to an admiralty yacht and renamed Lacroma. She saw no significant service during World War I, and was used as a barracks ship from 1916 to the end of the conflict. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat, she was ceded as a war prize to Italy and was broken up in 1920.
Design
The Austro-Hungarian Marinekommandant (Navy Commander), Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck, outlined in a memorandum of 8 September 1884 the requirements for a torpedo cruiser. Such a vessel should have a reinforced bow for ramming as well as torpedoes for attacks on larger warships. The cruisers would also be small and fast enough to undertake patrol and reconnaissance duties. The first two ships of Sterneck's program, the , were built in Britain so the Austro-Hungarian Navy could gain experience building small cruisers. The program was overseen by the naval engineer Siegfried Popper, who was tasked with designing a third cruiser in July 1885, to be built domestically. The Panther class provided the basis for the third ship, Tiger.
A commission was convened on 16 September to discuss the parameters for the new cruiser; among the questions were whether the ship would replicate the Panther-class ships or it would be an entirely new design. Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Alexander Eberan von Eberhorst, who headed the commission in charge of the cruiser program, instructed Popper that the commission had decided that the new ship should have a speed of not less than and carry two guns like the Panthers, but the ship should be some larger.
The Marinesektion (Naval Section of the War Ministry) requested tenders from Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) and the British shipyard Armstrong, which had built the Panther. class. The Armstrong proposal incorporated four 12 cm guns and was slightly longer than the Panther class, allowing for finer hull lines for less hydrodynamic resistance. STT's design was slightly smaller than Panther, but was otherwise similar to Armstrong's ship; both firms guaranteed a speed of normally and at forced draft. The navy determined that Armstrong's design would have reduced maneuverability compared to Panther, and the hull was too lightly built, so the STT proposal was chosen on 16 March 1886. STT received the contract on 25 May, for a price of 780,000 florins; the contract stipulated a minimum speed of 18 knots, along with a bonus for every one-tenth of a knot over . Popper, who had been in Britain supervising the completion of and , returned to oversee the construction of Tiger. Before work began, the builders decided to increase the length of the hull slightly to provide more space for the boiler room. Much of the steel used in the hull was domestically produced, but some material was purchased from British steelmakers.
Characteristics
Tiger was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of on a displacement of . Her superstructure consisted of a small conning tower forward. The ship had a short forecastle deck that terminated just aft of her conning tower. She had a slightly inverted bow. Her crew numbered 13 officers and 175 men, though this later decreased to a total of 177 officers and men. She was fitted with two pole masts.