SMS Erzherzog Albrecht

In 1869, the Austro-Hungarian navy asked its foremost naval designer, Chief Engineer Josef von Romako, who had designed all of the earlier ironclad vessels, to prepare designs for two new ironclads. The first became the larger ironclad {{SMS|Custoza||2}}, and the second became Erzherzog Albrecht, built to a slightly smaller design owing to budgetary shortages. Romako incorporated the lessons of the Battle of Lissa of 1866, and decided the new ship should favor heavy armor and the capability of end-on fire to allow it to effectively attack with its ram. This required compromises in the number of guns and the power of the ship's machinery; to make up for carrying fewer guns, Romako adopted the same casemate ship design adopted with the previous vessel, {{SMS|Lissa||2}}. Unlike the wooden-hulled Lissa, however, Erzherzog Albrecht{{'}}s hull would be constructed with iron; along with Custoza, they were the first iron-hulled ships of the Austro-Hungarian navy. Vice Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the victor of Lissa, approved Romako's proposals for Erzherzog Albrecht and Custoza, allowing construction to begin.{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}}{{sfn|Sondhaus|p=45}}{{sfn|Pawlik|p=81}}

Erzherzog Albrecht was {{convert|87.87|m|ftin|sp=us}} long at the waterline and {{convert|89.69|m|ftin|abbr=on}} long overall. She had a beam of {{convert|17.15|m|ftin|abbr=on}} and an average draft of {{convert|6.72|m|abbr=on|0}}. The ship displaced {{convert|5980|LT}}. According to Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, she was the second iron-built vessel to be built for the Austro-Hungarian fleet,{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}} but the historian R. F. Scheltema de Heere indicates she had a composite iron and wood hull.{{sfn|Scheltema de Heere|p=19}} A small conning tower was built aft of the foremast. She had a crew of 540 officers and enlisted men.{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}}

Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion, horizontal, 2-cylinder steam engine that drove a single screw propeller that was {{convert|6.324|m|abbr=on}} in diameter. The engine was manufactured by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, the same shipyard that built the ship. Steam was provided by seven boilers with twenty-six fireboxes, which were trunked into a single funnel located amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of {{convert|12.84|kn|lk=in}} from {{convert|3969|ihp|lk=in}}, though on speed trials conducted on 28 October 1874, she reached a speed of {{convert|13.38|kn}} from {{cvt|4057|ihp}}. The ship had a storage capacity of {{convert|467.9|LT}} of coal.{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}}{{sfn|Scheltema de Heere|p=19}}{{sfn|Pawlik|p=82}}

Erzherzog Albrecht was armed with a main battery of eight {{convert|24|cm|adj=on|sp=us}} 22-caliber breech-loading guns manufactured by Krupp's Essen Works. These were mounted in a central, armored battery that had two stories, four guns apiece, which allowed four guns to fire ahead or on the broadside, and two guns astern. She also carried several smaller guns, including six {{convert|9|cm|abbr=on}} 24-caliber guns and two {{convert|7|cm|abbr=on}} 15-caliber guns, all manufactured by Krupp. Later in her career, several small guns were added, including five {{convert|47|mm|adj=on|sp=us}} Hotchkiss revolver cannon, four 47 mm 35-caliber quick-firing guns, and a pair of {{convert|25|mm|abbr=on}} machine guns. She was also fitted with four {{convert|35|cm|abbr=on}} torpedo tubes, with one in the bow, one on each broadside, and one in the stern.{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}}{{sfn|Very|p=7}}

The ship's armored belt was composed of wrought iron plate that was {{convert|203|mm|abbr=on|0}} thick, and it was located at the waterline. The main battery casemate had {{convert|177|mm|abbr=on|0}} of iron plating.{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}} The transverse bulkheads on either end of the casemate were {{cvt|126|mm|0}} thick.{{sfn|Pawlik|p=82}}

File:SMS Feuerspeier.jpg

The keel for Erzherzog Albrecht was laid down at the STT shipyard in Trieste on 1 June 1870. She was launched on 24 April 1872 and was completed in June 1874,{{sfn|Sieche & Bilzer|p=269}} less her armament, which was installed in the naval arsenal at Pola. Completion of the ship was delayed significantly by budgetary shortages, which slowed acquisition of armor plate from British manufacturers. Funding for the iron armor was approved in January 1871.{{sfn|Sondhaus|pp=25–26, 48}} Erzherzog Albrecht was finally completed in June 1874, and began sea trials on 27 October.{{sfn|Pawlik|p=82}} The ironclad fleet, including Erzherzog Albrecht, was kept out of service in Pola, laid up in reserve; the only vessels to see significant service in the 1870s were several screw frigates sent abroad. In fact, she did not see active service until 1881. Late that year, Erzherzog Albrecht, the unarmored frigate {{SMS|Laudon||2}}, and several smaller vessels were sent to Cattaro Bay to help suppress a revolt there. During the operations, which concluded in March 1882, the ships bombarded rebel positions in the area.{{sfn|Sondhaus|pp=40–41, 65, 83}}

The ship took part in fleet maneuvers in 1887, which included gunnery training.{{sfn|Pawlik|p=83}} In June and July 1889, Erzherzog Albrecht served as the flagship during fleet training exercises, which also included the ironclads Custoza, {{SMS|Tegetthoff|1878|2}}, {{SMS|Kaiser Max|1875|2}}, {{SMS|Prinz Eugen|1877|2}}, and {{SMS|Don Juan d'Austria|1875|2}}.{{sfn|"Foreign Items"|p=913}} The ship remained in service until 1908, when she was converted into a tender for the gunnery school. Renamed Feuerspeier, she served in this capacity until October 1915, when during World War I she was repurposed for use as a barracks ship for German naval personnel operating U-boats in the Adriatic Sea. After the Central Powers lost the war in November 1918, Erzherzog Albrecht was ceded to Italy as a war prize under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She was renamed Buttafuoco and served as a hulk in the Italian fleet; she survived World War II and was eventually broken up for scrap beginning in 1950.{{sfn|Pawlik|p=90}}

{{reflist|20em}}

{{commons category}}

• {{cite journal

|title=Foreign Items

|page=913

|journal=The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces

|volume=24

|year=1889

|location=New York

|publisher=Army and Navy Journal, Inc.

|oclc=1589766

|ref={{sfnref|"Foreign Items"}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Pawlik

|first=Georg

|title=Des Kaisers Schwimmende Festungen: die Kasemattschiffe Österreich-Ungarns

|trans-title=The Kaiser's Floating Fortresses: The Casemate Ships of Austria-Hungary

|year=2003

|publisher=Neuer Wissenschaftlicher Verlag

|location=Vienna

|isbn=978-3-7083-0045-0

|ref={{sfnref|Pawlik}}

}}

• {{cite journal

| last = Scheltema de Heere

| first = R. F.

| editor-last = Fisher

| editor-first = Edward C.

| year = 1973

| title = Austro-Hungarian Battleships

| journal = Warship International

| volume= X

| issue = 1

| pages = 11–97

| issn = 0043-0374

| publisher = Naval Records Club, Inc.

| location = Toledo

| ref={{sfnref|Scheltema de Heere}}

}}

• {{cite book

| last1 = Sieche

| first1 = Erwin

| last2 = Bilzer

| first2 = Ferdinand

| chapter = Austria-Hungary

| pages = 266–283

| editor1-last = Gardiner

| editor1-first = Robert

| editor2-last = Chesneau

| editor2-first = Roger

| editor3-last = Kolesnik

| editor3-first = Eugene M.

| title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905

| year=1979

| location=London

| publisher=Conway Maritime Press

| isbn=978-0-85177-133-5

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2

| ref={{sfnref|Sieche & Bilzer}}

|name-list-style=amp

}}

• {{cite book

| last=Sondhaus

| first=Lawrence

| title=The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O8xHL01QG8cC

| year=1994

| location=West Lafayette

| publisher=Purdue University Press

| isbn=978-1-55753-034-9

|ref={{sfnref|Sondhaus}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Very

|first=Edward W.

|title=Navies of the World

|url=https://archive.org/details/naviesworldgivi00verygoog

|year=1880

|location=New York

|publisher=John Wiley & Sons

|oclc=20400836

|ref={{sfnref|Very}}

}}

{{SMS Erzherzog Albrecht}}

{{Austro-Hungarian ironclads}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erzherzog Albrecht}}

Category:1872 ships

Category:Ironclad warships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy

Category:Ships built in Trieste