Between the 1860s and the 1880s, the Austro-Hungarian Navy acquired a fleet of seventeen ironclad warships, including broadside ironclads, central battery ships and barbette ships. The first generation of ships, the seven broadside ironclads of the , and es, formed the core of the Austrian fleet that was involved in an ironclad arms race with Italy in the 1860s and defeated the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) at the Battle of Lissa in July 1866. 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. These ships—, , and the rebuilt ship of the line —were central battery ships; this placed an emphasis on end-on fire capabilities, a necessity for ramming attacks since broadside guns could not be brought to bear when ramming.
Following Tegetthoff's death in 1871, Friedrich von Pöck succeeded him as the head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy; Pöck lacked Tegetthoff's prestige and had great difficulty in securing funds from the Austro-Hungarian parliament for new ironclads. Pöck resorted to subterfuge to build the three s 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. Pöck gained parliamentary approval for two new vessels, the center battery ship in 1876 and the barbette ship in 1881. Pöck's successor, Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck, used the same ruse to acquire funding for the barbette ship , using funds supposedly devoted to rebuilding to build the new ship.
None of the second generation of Austro-Hungarian ironclads saw significant activity, owing to meager naval budgets, which precluded much active use throughout the late 19th century. By the early 1900s, the ships still in the navy's inventory had been reduced to secondary duties such as harbor defense or training exercises, with just Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf operational, serving as a guard ship. She was the only Austro-Hungarian ironclad in service during World War I, though she saw no action. After the war, most of the ships were surrendered to Italy as war prizes, though Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf and were awarded to the Royal Yugoslav Navy. Most of the surrendered vessels were broken up in the 1920s, though Erzherzog Albrecht, having been converted into a barracks ship, remained in the Italian Navy inventory until 1950.
+ Key Armament The number and type of the primary armament Armor The maximum thickness of the belt armor Displacement Ship displacement at full combat load Propulsion Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated Service The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate Laid down The date the keel assembly commenced Commissioned The date the ship was commissioned into the Navy
Drache class
Beginning with the launch of the French ironclad in 1859, the major European powers embarked on naval construction programs to modernize their fleets to match the development of the armored frigate. The Austrian Navy, under the direction of Marinekommandant (Naval Commandant) Archduke Ferdinand Max, ordered its first two ships in 1860 in response to Italy's order for the two s, which marked the beginning of the Austro-Italian ironclad arms race. The Austrian vessels, and , were designed by Josef von Romako, the chief constructor of the Austrian Navy. Both ships were built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste. They were small broadside ironclads, armed with a battery of twenty-eight guns. They provided the basis of the subsequent and es, which formed the core of the Austrian fleet at the Battle of Lissa.
The two ships were kept in Austrian waters to protect against a possible Danish attack during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, though the Danish fleet remained in the North and Baltic Seas for the duration of the conflict. 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. During the battle, Drache destroyed the coastal defense ship . Drache was damaged by heavy Italian fire, but Salamander was not seriously damaged in the battle. The ships saw little use after the war, and by 1875, both were in poor condition. Draches wooden hull was badly rotted by that time, and so she was removed from service and ultimately broken up in 1883. Salamander served as a guard ship from 1875 to 1883, when she was hulked; she was dismantled in 1896.
Ship Armament Armor Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 10 × 48-pounder smoothbore guns18 × 24-pounder rifled, muzzle-loading guns 1 shaft, 1 steam engine, 18 February 1861 November 1862 Broken up, 1883 February 1861 May 1862 Broken up, 1896
Kaiser Max class (1862)
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. 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. The new ships adopted incremental improvements over their predecessors, with more powerful engines (and thus a higher top speed) and more guns. The contracts for the ships were awarded to Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, which had also built the Drache-class ironclads. They proved to be a flawed design which was very unstable, a deficiency that could not be corrected in a refit conducted in 1867.
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. All three ships took part in the Seven Weeks' War and saw action at the Battle of Lissa, with Kaiser Max being among the first ships in Tegetthoff's fleet to spot the Italian Navy. There, they were all heavily engaged in a melee with the Italians, but none were seriously damaged since their armor plating was strong enough to withstand the Italian gunfire. The ships saw little activity after the war, owing in large part to disinterest in naval matters from parliament, which led to cripplingly low budgets for the navy; this prevented the fleet from being used in an active way. As the ships were in unusable condition due to neglect by the early 1870s, Marinekommandant Friedrich von Pöck secured funding to rebuild the vessels, though this was merely a ruse by Pöck to use the funds appropriated for the project to simply build three new vessels with the same names in their place. The original ships were in fact dismantled in 1873, with only the engines, armor plate, and other miscellaneous parts being reused in the new ships.
Ship Armament Armor Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 16 × 48-pounder guns15 × 24-pounder guns 1 shaft, 1 steam engine, Oct 1861 1863 Broken up, 1873 March 1863
Erzherzog Ferdinand Max class
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. With the outbreak of the Seven Weeks' War, the two ships were hastily rushed into service. 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. They were finally rearmed in the mid-1870s with Armstrong Guns.
Both ships saw action at the Battle of Lissa, with Erzherzog Ferdinand Max serving as Tegetthoff's flagship. He used the ship to ram and sink the Italian ironclad . Habsburg was less heavily engaged in the battle, though neither ship received significant damage. They spent the rest of the war patrolling the Adriatic Sea, but the Italian fleet remained in port. Tight naval budgets in the two decades after the war precluded much active use. In the mid-1880s, both ships were reduced to secondary duties, with Erzherzog Ferdinand Max becoming a tender to the gunnery training school and Habsburg becoming a guard ship and a barracks ship in Pola, the main Austro-Hungarian naval base. Habsburg was sold for scrap in 1898, but Erzherzog Ferdinand Max remained in the navy's inventory until 1916, when she too was broken up.
Ship Armament Armor Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 16 × 48-pounder guns 1 shaft, 1 steam engine, 6 May 1863 July 1866 Broken up, 1916 June 1863 Broken up, 1898
Lissa
Lissa was the first of the second generation of Austro-Hungarian ironclads; these ships were built after the experience at the Battle of Lissa. 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. These tactics made the traditional broadside arrangement difficult to use, since they could not easily be brought to bear. The recently developed casemate ship solved the problem. This design concentrated the armored gun battery in the central portion of the ship, allowing a thicker but overall lighter scale of armor protection, and permitting angled casemates so the guns could fire ahead and astern. Tegetthoff pressed for a construction program to acquire fifteen ironclads, which would have placed the Austro-Hungarian Navy at parity with its Italian rival. Romako based the design for Lissa on the British , though unlike Hercules, which mounted her battery in a single deck, Lissa incorporated a second casemate atop the main battery with two of the heavy guns placed there. These guns could be fired ahead, astern, and one to each side. 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.
Budgetary shortfalls delayed completion of the ship, which was constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, thus limiting her career once she entered service. She was laid up in reserve throughout the 1870s, though she was nominally assigned to the ironclad squadron. During this period, the only event of note was a major fire aboard the ship in 1872. In 1880, her hull was found to have rotted badly, so she was drydocked, stripped of most of her armor plate and re-timbered. After completing the reconstruction, she returned to the ironclad squadron, where she served until 1888. Lissa was finally stricken from the register in 1892 and broken up for scrap between 1893 and 1895.
Ship Armament Armor Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 12 × guns 1 shaft, 1 steam engine, 27 June 1867 May 1871 Broken up, 1893
Custoza