SMS Erzherzog Albrecht
Illustration of Erzherzog Albrecht, c. 1886
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| History | |
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 Austria-Hungary
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| Name: | Erzherzog Albrecht |
| Namesake: | Archduke Albrecht |
| Builder: | Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino |
| Laid down: | 1 June 1870 |
| Launched: | 24 April 1872 |
| Commissioned: | June 1874 |
| Out of service: | 1908 |
| Fate: | Ceded to Italy, 1920 |
| History | |
 Italy
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| Name: | Buttafuoco |
| Acquired: | 1920 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1950 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,980 metric tons (5,890 long tons; 6,590 short tons) |
| Length: | |
| Beam: | 17.15 m (56.3 ft) |
| Draft: | 6.72 m (22.0 ft) |
| Installed power: | 3,969 indicated horsepower (2,960 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 12.84 knots (23.78 km/h; 14.78 mph) |
| Crew: | 540 |
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| Armor: |
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SMS Erzherzog Albrecht was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class. Her design was similar to the ironclad Custoza, but Erzherzog Albrecht was built to a smaller size; like Custoza, she was an iron-hulled casemate ship armed with a battery of eight heavy guns. The ship was laid down in June 1870, was launched in April 1872, and was commissioned in June 1874. The ship's service career was limited; tight naval budgets precluded an active fleet policy in the 1870s, which did not markedly improve in the 1880s. Her first period of active service came in 1881 and 1882, when she helped suppress a revolt in Cattaro Bay. In 1908, she was converted into a tender for the gunnery training school, having been renamed Feuerspeier. In 1915, she became a barracks ship, and after World War I ended in 1918, was ceded to Italy as a war prize. She was renamed Buttafuoco, served in the Italian Navy as a hulk through World War II before being scrapped in 1950.
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 Custoza, 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, Lissa. 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.
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