Unlike his predecessor, Pöck was unable to leverage his uneventful naval career to secure funding from the frequently hostile Austro-Hungarian parliament, resulting in more than a decade of stagnation for the fleet.

In late 1883, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was forced to retire, ceding his position to Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck in November.

Friedrich von Pöck was born on 19 August 1825 in Szobotist, Komitat Neutra, in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austrian Empire.

After beginning his service in the fleet, he became a protege of Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf after serving as his second in command during their circumnavigation of the globe aboard the steam frigate SMS Novara in the late 1850s.

He did not see action, as an advance squadron commanded by Captain Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had broken the Danish blockade of the northern German ports at the Battle of Heligoland.

Pöck continued to push for another new ironclad, but by 1880 his efforts were only symbolic: in his proposed budget estimates for the year, he included the ship, but did not actually allocate any funds for it.

Unable to increase the strength of the ironclad fleet, Pöck turned to less expensive means to defend Austria-Hungary's coastline, including development of naval mines and self-propelled torpedoes.

Archduke Albrecht, then the inspector general of the army, argued that parity was impossible, and that the navy would have to focus instead on defensive weapons and tactics.

In response, Pöck formulated a new fleet plan in 1881 that aimed simply to maintain the number of ironclads in service, replacing only the oldest four by 1888.

[11] The heaviest blow to Pöck's plans came in 1882, with the signing of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy, which removed the threat of a hostile Italian fleet across the Adriatic.

[13] To combat reduced morale in the face of quantitative stagnation with the ironclad fleet, Pöck increased the number of ships sent abroad.

In September 1882, Pöck held major maneuvers to test methods to get the small craft close enough to attack larger, more powerful ironclads.