Background
The Austro-Hungarian Navy's U-boat fleet at the beginning of World War I consisted of six largely experimental submarines, two of which were not operational. The Navy did have five U-7-class submarines under construction in Germany, but a perceived inability to sail the completed submarines past Gibraltar to Pola led to a hasty decision to sell them to Germany, a severe setback for Austria-Hungary's U-boat fleet.
In order to bolster their fleet, which had already been boosted by the recovery and commissioning of the French submarine Curie as U-14 in 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Navy purchased five German UB-type coastal submarines, which had the advantages of short construction time and the ability to be shipped by rail—which avoided the perceived pitfalls of sea delivery. The first contract in February 1915 secured the purchase of U-10 and U-11, initially commissioned as the German Type UB I U-boats UB-1 and UB-15, respectively. A further contract on 1 April 1915, purchased three more boats, U-15, U-16, and U-17.
Read more about this topic: U-10 Class Submarine
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