SMS Novara[1] was a frigate that circumnavigated the Earth in the course of the Austrian Imperial expedition of 1857–1859, during the reign of (Kaiser) Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

[2] A number of eminent natural scientists joined the voyage, including Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld, curator in the invertebrate department of the Imperial museums.

[2] The material collected during the expedition was voluminous and prominent scientists continue to examine and write it to the present day;[2] (see details below).

[3] The expedition was accomplished by the frigate Novara, under the command of Kommodore Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair, with 345 officers and crew, plus 7 scientists aboard.

Finally, the expedition's introduction of coca plant leaves made it possible to isolate cocaine in its pure form for the first time in 1860.

In April 1864, SMS Novara carried the Archduke Maximilian and his wife Charlotte to Veracruz, in the Americas, for their establishment as the new Emperor and Empress of Mexico during the Second Mexican Empire.

Approximately 30,000 copies of Karl von Scherzer's book on the circumnavigation of the world of the frigate Novara were sold, a huge number in that era.

It is considered the second most successful popular scientific work in the German language in the 19th century; second only to Alexander von Humboldt's 5-volume Cosmography.

The complete title of the book is: Karl von Scherzer: "Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate "Novara" (B. von Wullersdorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander in-Chief of the Austrian Navy.