SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
Encyclopedia
SMS*
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was an Austro-Hungarian Radetzky class
pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy
on 5 June 1910.Although SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was laid down and commissioned after the launching of HMS Dreadnought
in 1906, her design was begun before and had the characteristics of a Pre-Dreadnought
battleship rather than later Post-Dreadnought
battleships. She was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The first ship of her class to be built, she preceded by more than six months. Her armament included four 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in two twin turret
s, and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets.
She participated in an international naval protest of the Balkan Wars
in 1913, during which she helped enforce a blockade of Montenegro. She was also one of the first ships to deploy seaplanes for military use. During World War I
, she saw limited service in the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron, including mobilization to assist the escape of the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau
and the bombardment of Ancona
in 1915. At the end of the war, she was ceded to Italy as a war prize and was eventually scrap
ped in 1926.
dockyard in Trieste
. She was laid down on 12 September 1907 and launched from the slipway on 8 September 1908. The teak
used on her deck was the only material Austria-Hungary purchased abroad to build her. A month and a half after her launch, she was towed to the harbor in Muggia
for completion. During a severe storm that night, she broke loose from her moorings; with no crewmen aboard, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand drifted for several hours before running aground just off Izola
. The following morning, the navy located her and started to refloat her. Completion was delayed by a welders' strike in 1908 and a riveters' strike in 1909. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the first ship of the class to be completed, and she was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 June 1910.
At 137.5 metre long, with a beam
of 24.6 metre and a draft
of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in), Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand normally displaced 14508 long tons (14,741 t). With full combat load, she displaced up to 15845.5 long tons (16,100 t). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, like the other ships of the Radetzky class, was smaller and not as well-armed as other battleships in contemporary navies. Despite these shortcomings, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was one of Austria-Hungary's first true deep-water fighting ships. She was powered by two 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and had a maximum speed of 20.5 knots (11.2 m/s). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the first warship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy to use oil and coal-fired boilers. She had a maximum range of 4000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at a cruising speed of 10 kn (5.4 m/s).
The ship's primary armament consisted of four 30.5 cm (12 in) 45-caliber
guns in two twin gun turret
s. Eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four wing turrets formed the heavy secondary battery. The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm (3.9 in) L/50 guns in casemate
d single mounts and four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) L/44 guns. Three 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tube
s were also carried, two on the beam and one in the stern.
. On the second cruise into the Aegean Sea
, conducted from November to December, she was accompanied by the cruiser and a pair of destroyers. After returning to Pola
, the entire fleet mobilized for possible hostilities, as tensions flared in the Balkans.
The following year, she participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea
to protest the Balkan Wars
. Ships from other navies included the British pre-dreadnought , the Italian pre-dreadnought , the , and the German light cruiser
. The most important action of the combined flotilla, which was under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney
, was to blockade the Montenegrin coast. The goal of the blockade was to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari, where Montenegro had besieged a combined force of Albanians and Ottomans. Pressured by the international blockade, Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari, which was subsequently occupied by a joint Allied ground force.
The first seaplane
s used in combat, supplied by French manufacturer Donnet-Lévêque, were operated from Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her two sisters during the blockade. However, the Austro-Hungarian Navy was not satisfied with the operation, as the ships lacked enough deck space for the planes, as well as a lack of cranes with which they could easily hoist the planes onto the decks. The planes were later moved to a hangar at the navy yard in Teodo
. By 1913, the four new dreadnoughts of the —the only dreadnought
s built for the fleet—were coming into active service. With the commissioning of these dreadnoughts, the navy shifted Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her sisters to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.
on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. At that time, the battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of the Radetzky class, the Tegetthoff class, and the older Habsburg
and Erzherzog Karl
classes. Along with the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of and . The two German ships broke out of Messina, which was surrounded by the British navy, and reached their allies in Turkey. The flotilla had advanced as far south as Brindisi
in southeastern Italy when news of the successful breakout
reached Vienna. The Austro-Hungarian ships were recalled before seeing action.
On 23 May 1915, between two and four hours after the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola,There is some debate on when the fleet departed Pola. Halpern states that it was four hours until the fleet set sail while Sokol claims that the fleet left Pola two hours after the declaration reached Admiral Haus. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian coast. Their focus was on the important naval base at Ancona
, and later the coast of Montenegro. The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro-Hungarian campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia
, who were members of the Entente
, during the first half of 1915. The attack on Ancona was an immense success, and the ships were unopposed during the operation. The bombardment of the province and the surrounding area resulted in the destruction of an Italian steamer in the port of Ancona itself, and an Italian destroyer, Turbine, was severely damaged further south. On the shore, the infrastructure of the port of Ancona, as well as the surrounding towns, were severely damaged. The railroad yard in Ancona, as well as the port facilities in the town, were damaged or destroyed. The local shore batteries were also rendered inactive. Additional targets that were damaged or destroyed included wharves, warehouses, oil tanks, radio stations, and the local barracks. 63 Italians, both civilians and military personnel alike, were killed in the bombardment. By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived at Ancona, the Austro-Hungarians were safely back in Pola.
The objective of the bombardment of Ancona was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria-Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems. The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps
for two weeks. This delay gave Austria-Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re-deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts.
The only damage in the ensuing days to Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand appears to have been after the battleships returned to Pola. A collision occurred between the ship and an unknown Austro-Hungarian destroyer on 30 May, while both were attempting to avoid an aerial bombardment from an Italian airship
; the destroyer sank. While the New York Times stated that the unnamed ship was a destroyer, there are no other records of an Austro-Hungarian destroyer being sunk in May 1915.
Aside from the attack on Ancona, the Austro-Hungarian battleships were confined to Pola for the duration of the war. Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus
, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatia
n coast. Since coal was diverted to the newer Tegetthoff class battleships, the remainder of the war saw Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being
. This resulted in the Allied blockade
of the Otranto Strait. With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, and with a shortage of coal, Haus enacted a strategy based on mines and submarines designed to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies.
held in March 1919. She was formally ceded to Italy under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed in September 1919, and was moved to Venice
by sailors of the Regia Marina
(Royal Italian Navy). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand did nothing while in Italian custody; she was scrapped in 1926.
Seiner Majestät Schiff
Seiner Majestät Schiff was the ship prefix used by the Prussian Maritime Enterprise , the Prussian Navy, the Imperial German Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy...
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was an Austro-Hungarian Radetzky class
Radetzky class battleship
The Radetzky class were a group of three semi-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1907 and 1910. All ships were built by the STT shipyard in Trieste. They were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarians, and the penultimate class of any type of...
pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....
on 5 June 1910.Although SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was laid down and commissioned after the launching of HMS Dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
in 1906, her design was begun before and had the characteristics of a Pre-Dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleship rather than later Post-Dreadnought
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
battleships. She was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The first ship of her class to be built, she preceded by more than six months. Her armament included four 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in two twin turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s, and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets.
She participated in an international naval protest of the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
in 1913, during which she helped enforce a blockade of Montenegro. She was also one of the first ships to deploy seaplanes for military use. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she saw limited service in the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron, including mobilization to assist the escape of the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision comprising the battlecruiser and the light cruiser...
and the bombardment of Ancona
Bombardment of Ancona
The Bombardment of Ancona was a naval engagement of the First World War between the navies of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Forces of the Austro-Hungarian Navy attacked and bombarded military and civilian targets all across Ancona in central Italy and several other nearby islands and...
in 1915. At the end of the war, she was ceded to Italy as a war prize and was eventually scrap
Scrap
Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...
ped in 1926.
Construction
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico TriestinoStabilimento Tecnico Triestino
Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino was a private shipbuilding company based in Trieste from the mid-19th to early 20th century, and the most important naval shipbuilding firm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire....
dockyard in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
. She was laid down on 12 September 1907 and launched from the slipway on 8 September 1908. The teak
Teak
Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...
used on her deck was the only material Austria-Hungary purchased abroad to build her. A month and a half after her launch, she was towed to the harbor in Muggia
Muggia
Muggia is a small Italian comune in the extreme south-east of Trieste lying on the border with Slovenia.Muggia is the last and only flap of Istria still in Italian territory, after the dissolution of the Free Territory of Trieste in 1954....
for completion. During a severe storm that night, she broke loose from her moorings; with no crewmen aboard, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand drifted for several hours before running aground just off Izola
Izola
Izola is an old fishing city and a municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Adriatic coast of the Istrian peninsula. Its name originates from the Italian Isola, which means island.- History :...
. The following morning, the navy located her and started to refloat her. Completion was delayed by a welders' strike in 1908 and a riveters' strike in 1909. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the first ship of the class to be completed, and she was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 June 1910.
At 137.5 metre long, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 24.6 metre and a draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in), Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand normally displaced 14508 long tons (14,741 t). With full combat load, she displaced up to 15845.5 long tons (16,100 t). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, like the other ships of the Radetzky class, was smaller and not as well-armed as other battleships in contemporary navies. Despite these shortcomings, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was one of Austria-Hungary's first true deep-water fighting ships. She was powered by two 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and had a maximum speed of 20.5 knots (11.2 m/s). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the first warship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy to use oil and coal-fired boilers. She had a maximum range of 4000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at a cruising speed of 10 kn (5.4 m/s).
The ship's primary armament consisted of four 30.5 cm (12 in) 45-caliber
Caliber (artillery)
In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....
guns in two twin gun turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s. Eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four wing turrets formed the heavy secondary battery. The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm (3.9 in) L/50 guns in casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
d single mounts and four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) L/44 guns. Three 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tube
Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...
s were also carried, two on the beam and one in the stern.
Service history
The ship was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian fleet's 1st Battle Squadron after her 1910 commissioning. In 1912, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her two sister ships conducted two training cruises into the eastern Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. On the second cruise into the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, conducted from November to December, she was accompanied by the cruiser and a pair of destroyers. After returning to Pola
Pula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...
, the entire fleet mobilized for possible hostilities, as tensions flared in the Balkans.
The following year, she participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...
to protest the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
. Ships from other navies included the British pre-dreadnought , the Italian pre-dreadnought , the , and the German light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
. The most important action of the combined flotilla, which was under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney
Cecil Burney
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cecil Burney, 1st Baronet GCB GCMG was a British Royal Navy admiral.-Early life and service before flag rank:...
, was to blockade the Montenegrin coast. The goal of the blockade was to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari, where Montenegro had besieged a combined force of Albanians and Ottomans. Pressured by the international blockade, Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari, which was subsequently occupied by a joint Allied ground force.
The first seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
s used in combat, supplied by French manufacturer Donnet-Lévêque, were operated from Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her two sisters during the blockade. However, the Austro-Hungarian Navy was not satisfied with the operation, as the ships lacked enough deck space for the planes, as well as a lack of cranes with which they could easily hoist the planes onto the decks. The planes were later moved to a hangar at the navy yard in Teodo
Tivat
Tivat is a coastal town in southwest Montenegro, located in the Bay of Kotor...
. By 1913, the four new dreadnoughts of the —the only dreadnought
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
s built for the fleet—were coming into active service. With the commissioning of these dreadnoughts, the navy shifted Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her sisters to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.
World War I
The ship was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassinationAssassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins coordinated by Danilo Ilić...
on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. At that time, the battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of the Radetzky class, the Tegetthoff class, and the older Habsburg
Habsburg class battleship
The Habsburg class was a group of pre-dreadnought battleships built by Austria-Hungary at the turn of the 20th century. They were the first sea-going battleship built by Austria-Hungary since the center-battery ship Tegetthoff in 1876. The class was composed of three ships: , , and...
and Erzherzog Karl
Erzherzog Karl class battleship
The Erzherzog Karl class was a class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy built before World War I. All of the battleships of the Erzherzog Karl-class were built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyards in Trieste. The first battleship, was laid down in 1902....
classes. Along with the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of and . The two German ships broke out of Messina, which was surrounded by the British navy, and reached their allies in Turkey. The flotilla had advanced as far south as Brindisi
Brindisi
Brindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
in southeastern Italy when news of the successful breakout
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision comprising the battlecruiser and the light cruiser...
reached Vienna. The Austro-Hungarian ships were recalled before seeing action.
On 23 May 1915, between two and four hours after the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola,There is some debate on when the fleet departed Pola. Halpern states that it was four hours until the fleet set sail while Sokol claims that the fleet left Pola two hours after the declaration reached Admiral Haus. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian coast. Their focus was on the important naval base at Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
, and later the coast of Montenegro. The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro-Hungarian campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia
Serbian Campaign (World War I)
The Serbian Campaign was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia at the outset of the First World War, until late 1915, when the Macedonian Front was formed...
, who were members of the Entente
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
, during the first half of 1915. The attack on Ancona was an immense success, and the ships were unopposed during the operation. The bombardment of the province and the surrounding area resulted in the destruction of an Italian steamer in the port of Ancona itself, and an Italian destroyer, Turbine, was severely damaged further south. On the shore, the infrastructure of the port of Ancona, as well as the surrounding towns, were severely damaged. The railroad yard in Ancona, as well as the port facilities in the town, were damaged or destroyed. The local shore batteries were also rendered inactive. Additional targets that were damaged or destroyed included wharves, warehouses, oil tanks, radio stations, and the local barracks. 63 Italians, both civilians and military personnel alike, were killed in the bombardment. By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived at Ancona, the Austro-Hungarians were safely back in Pola.
The objective of the bombardment of Ancona was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria-Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems. The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
for two weeks. This delay gave Austria-Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re-deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts.
The only damage in the ensuing days to Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand appears to have been after the battleships returned to Pola. A collision occurred between the ship and an unknown Austro-Hungarian destroyer on 30 May, while both were attempting to avoid an aerial bombardment from an Italian airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
; the destroyer sank. While the New York Times stated that the unnamed ship was a destroyer, there are no other records of an Austro-Hungarian destroyer being sunk in May 1915.
Aside from the attack on Ancona, the Austro-Hungarian battleships were confined to Pola for the duration of the war. Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus
Anton Haus
Anton Haus was an Austrian naval officer. Despite his German surname, he was born to a Slovenian-speaking family in Tolmein . Haus was fleet commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I and was the Navy's Grand Admiral from 1916 until his death.-Biography:Haus entered the Navy in 1869...
, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n coast. Since coal was diverted to the newer Tegetthoff class battleships, the remainder of the war saw Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being
Fleet in being
In naval warfare, a fleet in being is a naval force that extends a controlling influence without ever leaving port. Were the fleet to leave port and face the enemy, it might lose in battle and no longer influence the enemy's actions, but while it remains safely in port the enemy is forced to...
. This resulted in the Allied blockade
Otranto Barrage
The Otranto Barrage was an Allied naval blockade of the Otranto Straits between Brindisi in Italy and Corfu on the Albanian side of the Adriatic Sea in World War I. The blockade was intended to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Navy from escaping into the Mediterranean and threatening Allied operations...
of the Otranto Strait. With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, and with a shortage of coal, Haus enacted a strategy based on mines and submarines designed to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies.
Postwar fate
According to the terms of the Armistice of Villa Giusti, which ended hostilities between Italy and Austro-Hungary, the latter was to transfer three battleships to Venice. Italy originally intended to seize the three remaining Tegetthoff class ships, but Italian frogmen sank three days before the Armistice took effect. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was substituted in her place. The pre-dreadnought served as a showpiece of the Italian victory paradeVictory parade
A victory parade is a type of parade held in order to celebrate a victory. Because of that, victory parades can be divided into military victory parades and more frequent sport victory parades....
held in March 1919. She was formally ceded to Italy under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed in September 1919, and was moved to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
by sailors of the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
(Royal Italian Navy). Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand did nothing while in Italian custody; she was scrapped in 1926.