#austrian navy

[roehenstart]

Portrait of Archduke Friedrich Ferdinand Leopold of Austria (1821-1847) with the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order. By Robert Theer.

He was a Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy.

He never married and did not leave issue.

[ltwilliammowett]

The Austrian Navy 1786-1869

The Austrian Navy was founded in 1786, although there had already been various naval units before that, for example on the Adriatic coast or the Danube. The most important access to the sea was in Trieste in Italy and so it was from there that mostly Italian sailors sailed under the Austrian flag, albeit initially only with two cutters and 20 guns. This ended in 1797 with the Peace of Campo Formio and the takeover of Venice, Istria and Dalmatia which included the Venetian Navy and gave access to a further 37 ships. After the defeat at Wagram and the founding of the Kingdom of Italy, Austria lost its coastline in 1809. It was restored by 1815 after the Congress of Vienna. These naval forces were called the Austro-Venetian Navy and existed until 1848, during which time the navy was expanded. A naval cadet school was established and more ships and equipment were acquired. Among them were two frigates that sailed from Trieste to Brazil in the 1820s, making them the first Austrian ships to cross the Atlantic.

The uniforms were blue like most of the uniforms of the other navies. They wore dark blue coats, white breeches and black felt hats. Eventually the collars and cuffs became light blue, which was retained until 1865. As in other navies, sailors did not wear uniforms until the middle of the 19th century, but the usual dress of a sailor.  From 1820 officers wore the bicorne and from 1835 blue trousers with gold stripes were worn. The double-breasted tunic was introduced for officers around 1856, and distinctions were allowed between the different officer groups. While naval officers continued to wear blue coats, civilian officers wore white coats with silver lace. (x)

In 1829, Austrian warships bombarded Moroccan ports on the Atlantic coast, which were suspected of piracy. Archduke Frederick and the crews of Austrian warships had their first "real" military experience alongside British warships off the Syrian coast in 1840, where as part of the Quadruple Alliance they bombarded port cities (e.g. Saida, Acre, Beirut) and helped the Ottomans push back the Egyptian Viceroy.

In 1848, the European revolutions began, in the suppression of which Austria played a decisive role. For the navy, the greatest loss was Venice, when the military and naval forces were driven out of the city and Admiral Martini was captured. After Radetzky's victory over the Sardinians at Custozza in 1848, the situation was restored and the bombardment of Venice led to the surrender of the city in 1849.

The SMS Novara was an Austrian frigate that gained international fame due to her circumnavigation of the globe (1857-1859). The ship was rebuilt twice in the course of her service, with the second conversion, carried out from 1860 to 1862, being very extensive. The ship took part in the naval battle of Lissa in 1866 - after a serious second conversion to a steamer- and was broken up in 1898 after various uses. (x)

From 1850 onwards, the Austrian navy grew considerably. It was now the k.k. Kriegsmarine, a true Austrian navy. In addition, the Italian element of the navy was gradually replaced by other nationalities of the Empire, including Croats, Dalmatians and Hungarians. At this time the navy consisted of 4 frigates of 32-42 guns, 6 corvettes of 20 guns, 7 brigs of 16 guns, 10 miscellaneous sailing vessels and 4 steamships. In 1854, command of the Austrian Navy fell to Emperor Franz-Joseph's younger brother, Archduke Ferdinand Max.

The loss of most of the Italian possessions in the Second Italian War of Independence of 1859 did nothing to diminish the progress of the navy. A small arms race ensued with the newly independent Italy, which acquired more ships, some of which were even built on Austrian soil in Pola.

From 1856 onwards, Austrian sailors wore hats with oilskin brims (similar to those worn by the British Royal Navy), on which the name of the ship was written in gold letters on a black band. Over the jacket, dark blue round jackets with brass buttons and light blue collar patches were worn, fringed in white. When on sea, sailors wore blue blouses with light blue collar patches. Warrant officers and petty officers wore round peaked caps similar to officers, the former with gold bands, the latter with black. (x)

The importance of the warship fleet for Austria was demonstrated in 1864 by Wilhelm von Tegetthoff's naval victories at Helgoland in the German-Danish War. During his time as supreme admiral of the navy, urgently needed reforms began, such as the introduction of a uniform service language to end communication problems among Croatian, Italian and Austrian sailors on the high seas, and the sustained modernisation of the fleet. Until then, the Italian navy was still clearly superior to the Austrian navy. The decisive turning point, however, was the naval battle of Lissa, in which Austria defeated the numerically superior Italians in 1866. These first great successes of the Austrian navy, also guaranteed the financial means needed to modernise the fleet. Wood as a construction material was increasingly replaced by iron, and the naval battle of Lissa remained the last battle to be decided by the use of ram cruisers.

The Battle of St. Jean d'Acre, 3 November 1840,by Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (1775–1850) (x)

From this point on, Austria's navy was a naval force to be taken seriously in the Adriatic. In addition to military tasks, the navy also had an economic and scientific significance, which manifested itself in numerous research voyages by Austrian warships. These voyages to all continents served not least to train the crew, whereby "flying the flag" on the world's oceans for prestige purposes was a desirable side effect.  In 1869, the Austrian Navy became the Imperial and Royal Navy of Austria-Hungary,

Naval battle at Lissa, by Konstantinos Volanakis (1837–1907) (x)

With the defeat of the Central Powers in the First World War and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, the fate of the Kriegsmarine was also sealed. The ships of the Mediterranean fleet and parts of the Danube flotilla passed into the possession of the victorious powers. The parts of the fleet not claimed by the victorious powers were handed over to the new South Slavic National Council at the end of the war. The Republic of Austria was left with only a few patrol boats on the Danube. The last two patrol boats were decommissioned in autumn 2006.

[chubachus]

Austrian sailors posing on the deck of Austrian frigate Schwarzenberg during the Second Schleswig War, 1864. By C. Junod.

Source: Royal Library, Denmark.

[barbucomedie]

Boarding Pistol of the K.K. Kriegsmarine dated around the late 1860′s on display at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna

Though the navy was never a priority for the Emperor Franz Joseph and was not as popular in the Austrian press as the army. With the development of naval guns and ironclads in the late 19th century, naval boarding was becoming uncommon. Though many navies, all over the world, still trained marines and sailors for boarding and repelling boarders.

Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, at the age of 22 in 1854, was appointed Commander in Chief of the Austrian Navy. With the patronage of an Imperial Prince the Austrian Navy went through a series of modernising reforms for the ships and the soldiers of the navy. He also instigate large scale scientific missions such as the Novara Expedition in which the SMS Novara became the first Austrian ship to circumnavigate the globe. It would later ferry Maximilian and his wife to Mexico for his ill fated reign. 

These reforms would aid the navy during the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 specifically at the Battle of Lissa in the Adriatic. This battle is famous for being one of the last naval battles to have wooden ships and the use of ramming attacks. 

Photograph taken by myself 2016

[ltwilliammowett]

Thomas Ender was a painter who accompanied the Austrian frigate Austria on its voyage of exploration to Brazil in 1817. In addition to numerous paintings of the foreign flora and fauna, he also created pictures of life on board.

Here we see a lieutenant in uniform and top hat standing on a gun supervising the day's work on deck. It is interesting to see that the shrouds have ladders over which the men go into the actual shrouds and that there is another compass in front of the capstan.

The picture here shows how the men gather around the capstan to play music or sit in one of the boats to read.

[ltwilliammowett]

The Battle of Lissa, or the Battle of Vis, 1866, by Carl Frederick Sorensen (1818-1879)

In the Third Italian War of Independence, the Imperial Austrian Navy won the naval battle of Lissa near the island of Vis, which today belongs to Croatia, against the numerically and technically superior Italian fleet by using ramming tactics on 20 July 1866. This was probably the last naval battle to be won using this tactic. This was also the first naval battle in which newly developed armoured ships were used on a larger scale.

[ltwilliammowett]

The Austrian Navy - Dressed and undressed Officers ( Possible Midshipman and Lieutenant or a Frigate Captain) and a dresses sailor, 1820. By Rudolf von Ottenfeld

The Austrian uniforms are very similar to those of the Royal Navy, not only in the colour of the dark blue skirt and white trousers, but also in the cut. Only the sleeve trimmings, the collar, the belt and the epaulettes are different.

[ltwilliammowett]

Admiral’s bicorne hat of the Austro- Hungarian Navy (K.und.K. Marine) , late 19th century (c) Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien