The Austrian cruiser sunk in Qingdao - Queen Catherine Elizabeth:

A long time ago, Austria was bordered by the sea, and it also had a navy, and it had a brilliant record in the history of modern naval warfare. It was only due to the vicissitudes of history that the present purely landlocked country was finally formed. The "Empress Catherine Elizabeth", a cruiser that served in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was born and experienced countless ups and downs, and its final fate was linked to Qingdao, which was thousands of miles away.

History begins at the beginning: in 1848 the "Constitutional Revolution" broke out across Europe and quickly spread to Austria. At that time, the powerful Austria had defeated Italy several times, and its national territory had reached the Venice region of northern Italy, becoming the emperor of the surrounding countries in the south. The vast size of the country allowed Austria to fully expand its ambitions, but Austria at that time, although it had a small navy with a small number of people and mixed nationalities, could not be the vanguard of maritime expansion. When the revolution broke out, almost all Italians rose up against Austrian rule, and only about 72 officers and 665 sailors in the 5,000-strong Austrian navy pledged their allegiance to the Austrian Emperor, and some of their warships sailed to Pula, a very barren and desolate fishing village on the Isticoya Peninsula (present-day Croatia) off the Adriatic coast of northern Italy. So the Austrian naval flame was lit here!

In 1866, Austria was attacked by a joint Prussian and the newly formed Italian army, and the Austrian army lost the war on land, but the war at sea ended in the victory of the Austrian army [Note: On July 20, 1866, the famous "Battle of Lisa", the Austrian fleet completely defeated the Italian fleet using new tactics. Austria reoccupied part of Italy and remained the ruler there. After that, the Austrian government began a large-scale military rearmament and expansion of the navy. At that time, the small fishing port of Pula gradually became a military port and shipbuilding base of considerable scale. On 25 September 1890, an armoured cruiser named "Queen Catherine Elisabeth" was completed and launched in the port of Pula, named after the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Princess Sisi of Bavaria. The basic data of the ship are as follows: displacement of 4,030 tons, coal-fired boiler installation, speed of 20 knots, 424 officers and men on board, equipped with 8 150 mm naval guns, 2 70 mm secondary guns, 14 50 mm rapid-fire guns and 1 47 mm salute. The ship was a very advanced warship at that time.

In 1892, Archduke Franz Petdinand of Austria embarked on a round-the-world voyage aboard the ship. This circumnavigation of the world led him to take a keen interest in the development of the Austrian Navy, even though he was only an army officer. In the years that followed, the role of the cruiser "Queen Elizabeth" was more to train the navy, and the main tasks were to train the Austrian navy, protect Austria's commercial interests in various countries around the world, and engage in foreign affairs. It has been found in ports as far away as China, Egypt, India and other Middle Eastern countries. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China, and the Western Eight-Nation Coalition attacked Tianjin in the name of protecting the embassy and the diaspora. As the display strength of the Austrian Navy, the cruiser "Empress Elisabeth" also joined the ranks of the Western powers in the Eastern Crusade, and participated in the battle against the Dagukou Fort in Tianjin together with the Austrian cruiser "Empress Maria Teresa" and the gunboats "Aspejne" and "Zanta", and sent marines to the land to participate in the military operation to rescue the embassy in Beijing. After the war, the ship was stationed in Tianjin. During this period, Major Arthur von Janock, an officer aboard the Queen Elizabeth, also brought the Chinese game of Go back to China, and established the first European Association of Go enthusiasts in the Naval Club at the Pula Naval Base. In 1905-1906, the ship was permanently stationed in the waters of the Mediterranean after refurbishment and partial refit.

On August 19, 1913, the cruiser "Queen Elizabeth" sailed to China again, and as a symbol of Austria's naval power in the Far East, it was stationed off the coast of Dagukou in Tianjin for a long time. On June 24, 1914, in Sarajevo, the capital of Serbia in Europe, an incident occurred - the Austrian Archduke Franz Peddinand was assassinated. As a result, the already tense relations between European countries suddenly got out of control, and they actively prepared for war, and the clouds of great war shrouded the land of Europe. When the tension reached the Far East, the cruiser "Queen Elizabeth," which was anchored at the port of Zhifu (present-day Yantai City) in Shandong Province and was expected to visit Japan, also hastened to terminate its visit plan and actively overhaul and replenish coal and ammunition. At the beginning of July, the ship was ordered to go north to Dagukou in Tianjin to transfer the Austrian guard troops stationed in the Tianjin Concession and the embassy and consulates [Note: 185 officers and men of the Austrian Colonial Army (garrison) in China, carrying 2 77 mm rapid-fire field guns and 8 Austrian-made Maxim heavy machine guns. It traveled south and arrived at Zhifu Port on July 22. After a short stay, he came to Qingdao on the 27th of the same month. Other Austrian officers and soldiers took the train to Qingdao. This time, the Austrian army was to assist the German army in the Far East as an ally of Germany, and after receiving orders from the Austrian high command, they gathered in Qingdao to participate in the battle to defend the Jiaozhou Bay colony.

On August 1, 1914, the European War broke out, and at noon on August 23, the Japanese government declared war on Germany, and the Battle of Qingdao began.

During the German-Japanese War in Qingdao, the Austrian officers and men of the cruiser "Empress Elizabeth" performed heroically. Although in the early stage of the war, in order to support the firepower of the German land batteries, the ship dismantled the four 150 mm naval guns, two 70 mm secondary guns and some 50 mm rapid-fire guns on the ship, and installed them on the high ground on the west side of Zhongjiawa (located north of the present-day Hisense overpass) and Dabaodao Mountain (now Guanxiang Mountain) behind the German central fortress. However, the ship was still able to use the remaining artillery to resist the Japanese army, and was always active in the waters of Jiaozhou Bay during the war, and together with the German gunboats, it continued to go north to cooperate with the German land batteries to fire artillery bombardment on the forward Japanese positions, support the German fortress, and delay the Japanese advance.

On November 1, 1914, when the last shell was fired from the "Queen Elizabeth", the ship's guns fell silent. In order to prevent the enemy from being armed and to block the main channel of Qingdao Port, the cruiser "Queen Elizabeth" opened the submarine valve at 3 a.m. the next day and sank itself in the waters of the main channel between Tuandao and Huangdao (i.e., 4 southwest of Tuandao Lighthouse). 5 chains at the bottom of the sea), the exact coordinates of its wreck are 36 degrees 00 minutes north latitude and 120 degrees 15 minutes east longitude! The life of the Austrian cruiser "Queen Elizabeth" ended, and the Austrian naval fleet left the sea forever with the defeat of the First World War, becoming a term of history. As for the legendary cruiser "Queen Elizabeth", it finally found its final home in distant Qingdao. It is said that its huge body still lies still at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 35 meters, and as a witness to history, it silently tells the extremely tragic past of more than 90 years ago to passing ships.