SM UB-47 - Austro-Hungarian Navy Service

Austro-Hungarian Navy Service

In November 1916, the German Imperial Navy, having a hard time finding trained submarine crews, inquired to find out if its ally Austria-Hungary was interested in purchasing some of its Mediterranean submarines. A general agreement led to protracted negotiations, which stalled over the outflow of Austro-Hungarian gold reserves to Germany. But, with all of the details worked out, the two parties agreed on the sale of UB-47 and sister ship UB-43 to Austria-Hungary in June 1917.

When handed over by the Germans on 21 July, UB-47 was in a "worn out condition". Despite the rough condition of the boat, the U-boat was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 30 July 1917 as SM U-47, dropping the B from the U-boat's former designation. Linienschiffsleutnant Otto Molitor was installed as the U-boat's new commander. U-47's first success in Austro-Hungarian service came nearly six months later when, on 12 January 1918, Molitor torpedoed the French steamer Mica from Saigon just short of her destination of Milos.

In early April, Linienschiffsleutnant Freiherr Hugo von Seyffertitz replaced Molitor as commander of U-47, and a month later, von Seyffertitz achieved his first success as U-47's commander. The British steamer Itinda, a 5,203 GRT ship built in 1900, was sunk north of Susa, Libya, with one man killed. The next victory for von Seyffertitz and U-47 came in September. On the 20th U-47 launched a torpedo attack against the submarine Circé off Cattaro, sinking the French boat.

At the end of the war, U-47 was at Cattaro. In her Austro-Hungarian Navy career, U-47 sank two merchant ships of 6,467 gross register tons, and sank a single warship of 351 metric tons (387 short tons) displacement. U-47 was ceded to France as a war reparation in 1920, towed to Bizerta, and broken up there within a year.