Postscript on the Szent István
Graham Norton recounts the story of the sinking of the First World War Austro-Hungarian dreadnought, the Szent István, in view of the recent expeditions to the wreck.
Just before sunrise in the Adriatic on June 10th, 1918, Capitano di Fregata Luigi Rizzo, in command of the Royal Italian Navy’s MAS 15, a fragile motor launch, fired two torpedoes at SMS Szent István, one of the four dreadnoughts in Austria-Hungary’s fleet. Both hit the battleship, on the starboard side. Just under three hours later, now turned turtle, she sank, her slow death filmed at length from the air and from her accompanying sister ship, the Tegetthoff. This unique footage is still spliced into documentaries on naval warfare or on the First World War, usually without any attribution.
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