SMS Custoza was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class. She was the first Austro-Hungarian ironclad to be built after the navy studied the results of the Battle of Lissa of 1866; she was also the first iron-hulled capital ship to be built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was laid down in November 1869, launched in August 1872, and completed in February 1875. Her career was fairly limited, in part due to reduced naval budgets in the 1870s that also delayed her completion. Custoza was somewhat more active in the 1880s, taking part in an international naval demonstration against the Ottoman Empire in 1880, being modernized in 1882, and a trip to Spain for the Barcelona Universal Exposition in 1888. The ship became a training ship in 1902, was converted into a barracks ship in 1914, and after World War I, was awarded as a war prize to Italy. Custoza was immediately broken up.
SMS Custoza
Illustration of Custoza under sail
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.
Illustration of Erzherzog Albrecht, c. 1886
Erzherzog Albrecht as Feuerspeier sometime after 1899