U-1 Class Submarine (Austria-Hungary)

U-1 Class Submarine (Austria-Hungary)

The U-1 class was a class of two submarines or U-boats built for and operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine). The U-1-class boats were built to an American design at the navy yard in Pola. The class was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's efforts to competitively evaluate three foreign submarine designs.

The two U-1-class boats, both launched in 1909, were 100 feet (30 m) long and as built were each powered by two gasoline engines while surfaced, and two electric motors when submerged. Neither boat was operational at the beginning of World War I because both were in drydock awaiting replacement diesel engines for their problematic gasoline engines.

Beginning in 1915, both boats conducted reconnaissance cruises out of either Trieste or Pola until declared obsolete in early 1918. Both remained in service as a training boats at the submarine base on Brioni, but each was at Pola at the end of the war. They were ceded to Italy as war reparations in 1920 and scrapped at Pola. Neither submarine sank any ships during the war.