NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Names	Builders	Commissioned	Losses	Transfers	Discarding
Mb.164, 165	Eppel, Wien: Mb.164, 165	none	BU incomplete: Mb.164, 165	none	none

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	10.5
Displacement full, t
Length, m	13.3
Breadth, m	2.40
Draught, m	0.9 / -
No of shafts	1
Machinery	1 electric motor for cruising / 1 electric motor for tracks
Power, h. p.	2 / 13
Max speed, kts	4 /
Fuel, t	battery only
Endurance, nm(kts)	30(4)
Armament	2 - 450 TL
Complement	3

Standard scale images

Project history

The Austrian Navy was deeply impressed by the Italian tracked MTB Grillo (this was not an amphibious tank, as might be expected, the tracks being designed only to negotiate floating barricades) which was captured on 14 May 1918 after an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate into Pola harbour, the Vienna-based boatyard of Fritz Eppel Jr was ordered to design and built two austere versions of such a vessel. Mb.164 was intended to attack Ancona, and her sister Mb.165 to penetrate into Chioggia harbour. On 12 October 1918 test runs were held with Mb.164 in a tributary of the Danube at Vienna, in the presence of high-ranking Austro-Hungarian naval officers, but when the unit was ready for railway delivery to Pola, the war was over. Both units-were scrapped after the war.