List of ironclad warships of Austria-Hungary
The Austrian commander, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, used ramming tactics to win the battle, which influenced the second generation of ironclads that he ordered in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
Pöck resorted to subterfuge to build the three Kaiser Max-class ironclads in the mid-1870s, ostensibly as simple reconstructions of the earlier vessels of the same names but little material was reused in the new ships.
Beginning with the launch of the French ironclad Gloire in 1859, the major European powers embarked on naval construction programs to modernize their fleets to match the development of the armored frigate.
[7] Two years later, during the Seven Weeks' War against Prussia and Italy, Drache and Salamander saw action at the Battle of Lissa under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, where the Austrian fleet decisively defeated the Italian Regia Marina.
[1][9] Austria's main naval rival, the recently united Kingdom of Italy, had also embarked on an ironclad building program in the early 1860s.
Italy claimed significant areas of the Austrian Empire as historically Italian, so its naval expansionism posed a direct threat to Austria.
[11] To match Italian acquisitions, Archduke Ferdinand Max ordered three more ironclads in 1861; Romako also prepared the design for these ships, which were based on the Draches.
[12] Don Juan d'Austria was deployed to the North Sea during the Second Schleswig War, but she arrived too late to take part in any battles with Danish forces.
[16][17] The last group of the first generation of Austrian ironclads, the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max class, were a significant improvement over the earlier five vessels, being much larger.
Their increased size would have allowed them to carry thirty-two 48-pounder guns, a significant increase in fire power over the Kaiser Max class, but the need to complete the ships quickly as tensions with Italy reached a crisis point in June 1866 forced the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyards in Trieste to complete them with only half that number of guns.
[18] The ships never received their intended armament, as after the Austrian defeat, disinterest in naval affairs prevented the funding necessary to complete them; instead, they were laid up through the early 1870s.
At the battle, Tegetthoff had emphasized aggressive ramming tactics to make up for the numerical inferiority of his armored squadron compared to the Italian fleet.
Tegetthoff pressed for a construction program to acquire fifteen ironclads, which would have placed the Austro-Hungarian Navy at parity with its Italian rival.
Despite having lost the Seven Weeks' War to Prussia just a year before, the Austro-Hungarian government ordered the ship's breech-loading guns from the Prussian Krupp firm.
[23][24] Budgetary shortfalls delayed completion of the ship, which was constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino,[25] thus limiting her career once she entered service.
[25][30] She proved to be fast and maneuverable in service, but was built to an obsolescent design; this was less a fault of Romako's than a simple result of the rapid pace of development of naval technology in the period.
[31] By the time Custoza entered service in 1875, Italy had already laid down the two very large and powerful Duilio-class turret ships, which were armed with four 17.7-inch (450 mm) guns.
[25] As a result of its chronically low budgets, the navy had trouble paying the British manufacturers of her armor plate on schedule, which delayed her completion.
[38] As with the rest of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, Erzherzog Albrecht spent the 1870s out of service, being activated only in 1881 to assist in the suppression of a rebellion near Cattaro Bay.
[45][52][53] Tegetthoff died in 1871, having been unable to secure the funding for a long-term naval construction program in line with his strategic thinking; his successor, Friedrich von Pöck, proved to be even less successful in terms of convincing parliament to support his priorities.
His first success came in 1873, when he convinced parliament to authorize the reconstruction of the three old and badly rotted Kaiser Max-class ironclads, though he in fact only reused some components from the ships—their engines (though not their boilers), parts of the armor plate, and various fittings to save money.
[56] Kaiser Max and Don Juan d'Austria were constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, while Prinz Eugen was built at the Pola Naval Arsenal.
The final peace treaty awarded the two surviving ships to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, though Italy refused to relinquish Vulkan; her ultimate fate is unknown.
[45] After the Royal Yugoslav Navy acquired Kaiser Max, she was renamed Tivat and either scrapped in 1924,[58] or seized by Italy during World War II, her fate after that being unknown.
Tegetthoff was armed with a battery of six 11.0-inch (280 mm) guns in the central casemate; at the time she was built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino,[45] she was the largest and most powerful ship of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, a distinction she held for three decades.
Additionally, she was the first capital ship equipped with triple-expansion steam engines, which gave her a significantly higher top speed than earlier vessels.
[65] In 1890, the year after she entered service, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf took part in a major cruise abroad, which included stops in Britain, Denmark, Sweden, France, and Italy.
Like many of their older ironclads built in the 1860s and 1870s, the rapid pace of naval developments rendered her an out of date design after less than ten years in service.
[72] Following Pöck's retirement in 1883, his successor, Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck (who had been Erzherzog Ferdinand Max's commander at Lissa) also unsuccessfully argued for new ironclad construction to modernize the fleet.
When he proved to be unable to convince parliament to allocate funding for a new ship, he resorted to the same budgetary sleight of hand that Pöck had used to "rebuild" the Kaiser Maxes.
