The Kaiser Franz Joseph I class (sometimes called the Kaiser Franz Josef I class) was a class of two protected cruisers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I, the class comprised and . Construction took place throughout the late 1880s, with both ships being laid down in 1888. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, while Kaiserin Elisabeth was built at the Pola Navy Yard in Pola. The Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships were the first protected cruisers constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the first ship of the class to be commissioned into the fleet in July 1890. She was followed by Kaiserin Elisabeth in November 1892.

Constructed in response to the Italian cruisers and , the design of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class was heavily influenced by the Jeune École (Young School) naval strategy. The cruisers were intended to serve as the "battleship of the future" by Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (German: Marinekommandant) Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck, the ships were heavily criticized by officers and sailors alike in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who labeled the ships, "Sterneck's sardine–boxes". Changes in technology and strategic thinking around the world rendered the design of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships obsolete shortly after they were commissioned. Nevertheless, the ships remained an important component of Austro-Hungarian naval policy, which continued to emphasize the Jeune École doctrine and the importance of coastal defense and overseas missions to show the flag around the world. Both Kaiser Franz Joseph I and Kaiserin Elisabeth participated in several overseas voyages during their careers, with the former conducting a tour of East Asia between 1892 and 1893, the first such voyage by a steel-hulled ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Archduke Franz Ferdinand accompanied Kaiserin Elisabeth for most of this voyage. Kaiserin Elisabeth saw action during the Boxer Rebellion, and thereafter the two ships of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class would alternate tours of duty in the Far East until the start of World War I.

At the outbreak of the war, Kaiserin Elisabeth was stationed in China and participated in the defense of the German-held Kiautschou Bay concession against Japan and the United Kingdom. Some of her guns were removed during the Siege of Tsingtau for use as a shoreline battery. She was scuttled by her crew in November 1914 shortly before the surrender of the port of to Anglo-Japanese forces. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was a member of the Fifth Battle Division at the onset of war and was stationed at the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro as a guard-ship. Obsolete by the start of the war, Kaiser Franz Joseph I saw little action during most of the conflict, and rarely left the Bocche di Cattaro. In late 1914, she participated in the shelling of Franco-Montenegrin artillery batteries located on the slopes of Mount Lovćen, which overshadowed the Bocche. In January 1916, when the Austria-Hungary began an invasion of Montenegro, Kaiser Franz Joseph I assisted in again silencing the Montenegrin batteries on Mount Lovćen in support of the Austro-Hungarian Army, which seized the mountain and subsequently captured the Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, knocking the country out of the war.

In 1917, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was decommissioned, disarmed, and converted into a headquarters ship for the Austro-Hungarian base at Cattaro. She remained in this capacity through the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in October 1918, the Austrian government transferred its navy to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allies. Following the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, an Allied fleet sailed into Cattaro and seized the former Austro-Hungarian ships stationed in the Bocche, including Kaiser Franz Joseph I. She was ceded to France as a war reparation after the war, but sank during a gale off Kumbor in October 1919.

Background On 13 November 1883, Emperor Franz Joseph I promoted Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck to the office of vice admiral, and named him Marinekommandant of the Austro-Hungarian Navy as well as Chief of the Naval Section of the War Ministry (German: Chef der Marinesektion). Sterneck's presence at the Battle of Lissa, and his past ties to Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, led to his promotion being widely supported within the Navy. After spending the first several years as Marinekommandant reforming the administrative bureaucracy of the Navy, Sterneck began to pursue a new program of warship construction in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

Emergence of Jeune École

In the 1880s, the naval philosophy of Jeune École began to gain prominence among smaller navies throughout Europe, particularly within the French Navy, where it was first developed by naval theorists wishing to counter the strength of the British Royal Navy. Jeune École advocated the use of a powerful armed fleet primarily made up of cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats to combat a larger fleet made up of ironclads and battleships, as well as disrupt the enemy's global trade. Jeune École was quickly adopted as the main naval strategy for Austria-Hungary under the leadership of Sterneck. His strong support for Jeune École was rooted in a belief that the strategy appeared to fit existing Austro-Hungarian naval policy, which stressed coastal defense and limited power projection beyond the Adriatic Sea. Tests conducted by the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the early and mid 1880s led Sterneck to believe that torpedo boat attacks against a fleet of battleships, a central component of Jeune École, would have to be supported by larger ships such as cruisers. As Austria-Hungary lacked the ability to disrupt global trade due to its location in the Adriatic Sea, and the two potential enemies the Navy could find itself at war with–Italy and Russia–lacked suitable targets for commerce raiding or overseas colonies, the cruisers which would be designed under the principles of Jeune École would instead focus on coastal defense and leading torpedo boat flotillas as opposed to commerce raiding. These tests, as well as the adoption of Jeune École as the principal naval strategy of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, led to the development of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers.

Proposals and budget Under the Navy's 1881 plan which was passed by his predecessor, Friedrich von Pöck, Sterneck proposed the construction of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers to the Austrian and Hungarian Delegations for Common Affairs as "replacements" for the Austro-Hungarian ironclads and . Kaiser had not seen active service since 1875 and Pöck had intended to have her replaced prior to his resignation in 1883. Lissa had been reassigned to the II Reserve by 1888. The Delegations strongly supported the proposal for the cruisers, in large part due to their relatively low price compared to other capital ships of the era. Both Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers were to cost 5,360,000 florins or 10,720,000 crowns, while the ironclad warship , laid down in 1884, had cost ƒ5,440,000 to construct. The Delegations thus allocated funding to construct two Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships—"Ram Cruiser A" and "Ram Cruiser B" (German: "Rammkreuzer A" and "Rammkreuzer B")—under the 1888 and 1889 budgets.

Sterneck was inspired to propose the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class after the construction of the Italian cruisers Giovanni Bausan and Etna, but this early enthusiasm was tempered by concerns that the ships would be unable to match larger battleships of foreign nations, which were beginning to approach . In 1889, the Austro-Hungarian Ministerial Council advocated that the third proposed ship of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class be postponed. While the initial funds for "Rammkreuzer C" were still included in the 1890 naval budget, authorization for the ship's construction was never given by the Delegations and the ship was never laid down.

Design

Authorized near the start of Austria-Hungary's second naval arms race against Italy, the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers were designed to lead torpedo flotillas into battle against a larger fleet of battleships. While Italy and Austria-Hungary had become allies under the 1882 Triple Alliance, Italy's Regia Marina remained the most-important naval power in the region which Austria-Hungary measured itself against, often unfavorably. Despite achieving victory at sea after the Battle of Lissa during the Third War of Italian Independence, Italy still possessed a larger navy than Austria-Hungary in the years following the war. The disparity between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies had existed ever since the Austro-Italian ironclad arms race of the 1860s. While Austria-Hungary had shrunk the disparity in naval strength throughout the 1870s, Italy boasted the third-largest fleet in the world by the late 1880s, behind the French Navy and the British Royal Navy.

Sterneck hailed the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers as the "battleships of the future", and it was envisioned that the ships would lead a torpedo division made up of the light cruisers Leopard and Panther, two destroyers, and 12 torpedo boats. The displacement and speed of the ships illustrated Austria-Hungary's application of Jeune École, while the prominent ram bows of the cruisers reflected the legacy of the Battle of Lissa, which saw a much smaller Austrian fleet defeat the Italian Regia Marina using ramming tactics. Sterneck also believed that the cruisers would operate in chaotic melee engagements alongside the torpedo division they would lead, which would necessitate a bow ram in order to damage and sink enemy vessels similar to what Tegetthoff had done at Lissa. The large guns of the cruisers were also chosen in order to give credence to Sterneck's plan for the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships to replace heavily armored ironclads and battleships.

General characteristics Designed by Chief Engineer Franz Freiherr Jüptner, the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships had an overall length of and a length between perpendiculars of . They had a beam of , and a mean draft of at deep load. They were designed to displace at normal load, but at full combat load they displaced .

Propulsion Both ships possessed two shafts which operated two screw propellers measuring in diameter. These propellers were powered by two sets of horizontal triple expansion engines, that were designed to provide . The propulsion systems of both ships also consisted of four cylindrical double-ended boilers, which gave the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships a top speed of . Both ships carried of coal had a range of approximately at , and were manned by a crew of 367 to 444 officers and men.

Armament

The Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers had an armament system which was based heavily on the design of "Elswick cruisers" such as the Chilean cruiser . They were armed with a main battery of two K L/35 Krupp guns, mounted in turrets fore and aft. The ships' secondary armament consisted of six SK L/35 guns, mounted in casemates amidships with three on either side. Both ships also possessed 16 SFK L/44 guns, and four torpedo tubes with two located at the bow and stern, and two located amidships. These heavy guns were intended to help the cruisers open fire on heavier battleships from a distance while supporting torpedo boat attacks on an enemy warship or fleet. Between 1905 and 1906, while the Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships were undergoing a refit for modernization, their main batteries were replaced by two SK L/40 Škoda guns.