List of Battleships of Austria-Hungary - Erzherzog Karl Class

Erzherzog Karl Class

The Erzherzog Karl-class was the second class of pre-dreadnought battleships to be built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Like the members of the Habsburg-class before them, all of the battleships of the Erzherzog Karl-class were built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyards in Trieste. The first battleship, Erzherzog Karl was laid down in 1902. Construction on the remaining two battleships, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzog Friedrich continued up to 1905. Erzherzog Karl was commissioned in 1906, while Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzog Friedrich were commissioned in 1907. The three Erzherzog Karl-class battleships were considered modern for their small size. Small docking space and budget restraints resulted in the class being fairly compact. They were well designed and properly protected.

Despite these advantages, the Erzherzog Karl-class battleships were inferior to the more modern Dreadnought type battleships – with their "all big gun" armament and turbine propulsion. Due to their obsolete nature, they only played a limited role during World War I. At the beginning of World War I, the members of the Erzherzog Karl-class formed the III division of the Austrian-Hungarian battle-fleet. Despite their largely inactive careers in the war, the battleships of the Erzherzog Karl-class did participate in the flight of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau during the opening days of the war as well as the bombardment of Ancona on 23 May 1915. The ships also took part in suppressing a major mutiny among the crew members of several armored cruisers stationed in Cattaro between 1–3 February 1918. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Friedrich were ceded as war reparations to France. The remaining battleship, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, was given to Great Britain. Erzherzog Karl ran aground at Bizerte and was broken up there in 1921. The remaining two battleships were scrapped in 1921 in Italy.