Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino ( STT ) ( Technical Establishment of Trieste ) 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 . After World War I , Trieste was ceded to Italy and the firm built naval and commercial vessels for its new host country . STT was merged with another Italian shipbuilding firm , Cantiere Navale Triestino , in 1929 to form Cantieri Riuniti dell ' Adriatico ( CRDA ) . As CRDA Trieste , its shipyards remained active well into the postwar period , becoming part of the Fincantieri group in 1984 . History . Austro - Hungarian ownership . Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino had its origins in a private shipyard founded by Giuseppe Tonello at San Marco , on the coastline west of Trieste , in 1838 . In 1857 , the shipyard was merged with a local manufacturer of marine engine s to become STT . A second shipyard was also acquired , at San Rocco near the town of Muggia just south of Trieste . STT was the largest and most important shipbuilder in the Austrian Empire and its successor state , the Austro - Hungarian Empire . The company built most of the Austro - Hungarian Navy ' s capital ship s , as well as many merchant vessels . In the 1860s and 1870s , STT built five of the Austro - Hungarian Navy ' s seven centre - battery ship s ( a forerunner of the battleship ) , as well as a number of ironclad s , cruiser s , frigate s and corvette s . Between 1884 and 1914 , the company built 13 of the Austro - Hungarian Navy ' s 16 battleships , including all three battleships of the , all three of the , and three of the four . It also built the three coastal defence battleship s of the . In 1909 Rudolf Montecuccoli , chief of the Austro - Hungarian Navy , pressured STT ( together with Škoda ) to start work on two dreadnoughts , and , even though approval of the budget for them was held up in the Austro - Hungarian Reichstag - being concerned about Italy and France embarking on dreadnought projects of their own . Montecuccoli was compelled to resort to an intricate web of propaganda and deception to camouflage the fact that the new ships did not have Reichstag approval . He asserted that industry was financing the construction of two dreadnoughts on speculation ; this was completely untrue , and both STT and Skoda were extremely nervous about the subterfuge . In the event , the two ships could not be laid down until after Montecuccoli took an expensive 32 million crown credit in 1910 upon his own responsibility . The parliamentary approval was only granted in March 1911 , when the dreadnoughts were already under construction . STT then also got the contract for the . By 1914 , the San Rocco shipyard had five slipways of between 350 and 500 feet ( three of which served to construct battleships ) as well as a 350 foot dry dock and a 400 foot floating dock . The company had its own plant in Muggia for the manufacturer of engines and boilers , and a licence from the United Kingdom to produce Parsons steam turbines . In the years prior to World War I , the company ' s workforce had been gradually expanded from 2 , 700 to approximately 3 , 200 . Following Italy ' s entry into World War I against the Central Powers ( which included Austria - Hungary ) , STT was stripped of its Italian name and given the patriotic German name Austriawerft . Austriawerft was contracted to build two new battleships during the war , but these were cancelled in 1915 , probably due to the company ' s loss of skilled workers , most of whom were Italian . Two submarines contracted to the company later in the war also had to be cancelled due to the lack of experienced submarine technicians . Italian ownership . After the Austro - Hungarian Empire broke up at the close of World War I , the region of Trieste was ceded to Italy and Austriawerft became an Italian firm , whereupon its original name , Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino , was restored . During the 1920s , STT built the heavy cruiser for the Italian navy , and the luxury commercial liner . In 1929 , STT merged with another Italian company , Cantieri Navale Triestino based at Monfalcone , to form Cantieri Riuniti dell ' Adriatico ( CRDA ) ( United Shipbuilders of the Adriatic ) , and the STT component was named CRDA Trieste . CRDA Trieste built a number of light and heavy cruiser s for the Regia Marina Italia ( Royal Italian Navy ) between the wars , as well as some 27 submarines . The ocean liner was also constructed in 1932 . During the Second World War , CRDA Trieste built two battleships for the Regia Marina , and . CRDA Trieste survived the postwar shakeup in the shipbuilding industry and went on to build several more commercial liners in the 1950s and 1960s , as well as a few naval vessels . In 1984 , CRDA was sold to the Fincantieri Group , and its Trieste shipyards were no longer considered important ship construction or repair facilities . However , as of 2000 , the shipyards still retained three dry docks capable of serving ships up to 25 , 000 , 35 , 000 and 170 , 000 tons respectively . Production . STT ( Austria - Hungary ) . The following table lists the capital ships built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy . An asterisk denotes a unique ship . STT ( Italy ) . The following table lists ships built by STT after the Italian takeover . CRDA Trieste . The following table lists ships built at the former STT shipyards after the company ' s 1929 merger with Cantieri Navale Triestino to form CRDA .