SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand

SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was an Austro-Hungarian pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 June 1910. 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 turrets, 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 scrapped in 1926. Radetzky-class battleship Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino 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 long, with a beam of and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in), Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand normally displaced . With full combat load, she displaced up to . Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, like the other ships of the Radetzky class, was smaller and not as well-armed as other battleships in contemporary navies.