Kaiser Max-class ironclad (1875)
Kaiser Max c. 1880–89
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 Austro-Hungarian Navy
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| Preceded by: | SMS Erzherzog Albrecht |
| Succeeded by: | SMS Tegetthoff |
| Built: | 1874–1878 |
| In commission: | 1876–1912 |
| Completed: | 3 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Retired: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Casemate ship |
| Displacement: | 3,548 metric tons (3,492 long tons; 3,911 short tons) |
| Length: | |
| Beam: | 15.25 m (50 ft 0 in) |
| Draft: | 6.15 m (20 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power: | 2,755 ihp (2,054 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 13.28 knots (24.59 km/h; 15.28 mph) |
| Crew: | 400 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | |
The Kaiser Max class of ironclad warships was a group of three casemate ships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s: Kaiser Max, Don Juan d'Austria, and Prinz Eugen. The three ships were ostensibly the same vessels as the earlier Kaiser Max class, though they were in fact entire new vessels. Only parts of the earlier ships' machinery, armor plating, and other equipment were reused in the new ironclads. The ships were all laid down in 1874; the first two were launched in 1875 and completed in 1876, while work on Prinz Eugen proceeded much more slowly. She was launched in 1877 and completed in 1878. The three ships were armed with a battery of eight 21-centimeter (8.3 in) guns mounted in a central, armored casemate, and were capable of a top speed of 13.28 knots (24.59 km/h; 15.28 mph).
The ships had fairly uneventful careers, owing in part to the restricted naval budgets of the 1870s and 1880s, which precluded an active fleet policy. The three ships made one major overseas cruise to Spain in 1888 to take part in the Barcelona Universal Exposition. They were withdrawn from service in the early 1900s and converted for secondary roles; Kaiser Max and Don Juan d'Austria became barracks ships and Prinz Eugen became a repair ship and was renamed Vulkan. After World War I, Don Juan d'Austria sank under unclear circumstances while the other two ships were seized by Italy. Kaiser Max was transferred to the Royal Yugoslav Navy in the postwar peace negotiations and renamed Tivat. Italy refused to turn Vulkan over to Yugoslavia, however. The ultimate fate of both vessels is unclear.
In the early 1870s, the head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Friedrich von Pöck, repeatedly tried to secure funding from parliament for new ironclad warships, but the government, preoccupied with rebuilding the Austro-Hungarian Army after its crushing defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866, refused to divert funds to the navy's budget for new ships. Reconstruction projects were uncontroversial, however, and so Pöck requested funds to rebuild the old Kaiser Max-class ironclads, intending instead to use the money to build new ships. The new vessels would be built to similar dimensions as the earlier vessels, and some material, including the engines, armor plate, and various fittings, would be reused to save money. To complete the deception, he assigned the ships the same names, which has led to some confusion in subsequent histories. Part of the confusion owes to the records in the Austrian state and military archives, which refer to the ships as simple conversions, not new constructions. The design for the new ships was prepared by Chief Engineer Josef von Romako, who had also designed the earlier Kaiser Maxes. The "reconstructions" proved to be very economical, with the three new ships costing as much as had been spent on the ironclad Erzherzog Albrecht.
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