Monarch - class coastal defense ship The " Monarch " class was a class of three coastal defence ship s , built by Austria - Hungary at the end of the 19th century . The " Monarch " s were the first ships of their type to utilize turrets . The class comprised three ships : , , and , each armed with two L / 40 guns in two turrets and capable of at full speed . The " Budapest " was fitted with slightly more modern and powerful engines , giving her a top speed of . " Monarch " was launched on 9 May 1895 , " Wien " on 7 July 1895 , and " Budapest " just over a year later on 24 July 1896 . The ships saw very little service during World War I in the V Division of the Austro - Hungarian fleet . " Budapest " and " Wien " took part in the bombardment of Italian positions along the Adriatic coast in 1915 and 1917 , but the three battleships went largely inactive for the remainder of war . In 1917 , " Wien " was struck by Italian torpedoes and sank in her home port of Trieste . The remaining two ships were ceded to Great Britain following the end of the war and were scrapped between 1920 and 1922 . Construction . In the 1890s the Austro - Hungarian Navy consisted of two obsolescent ironclad s , the " Rudolph " and the " Stephanie " . By 1893 , sufficient funds were available to build three replacement ships , but the Hungarian and Austrian parliaments authorized only the construction of a smaller class of coastal defense ships , given that Austria - Hungary believed that the role of her navy was solely revolved around coastal defense . The three new ships — the SMS " Budapest " , SMS " Wien " , and SMS " Monarch " — weighed about , half the size of the battleships of other navies . The " Budapest " was fitted with more powerful engines than her sister ships , giving her a higher top speed . SMS " Budapest " and SMS " Wien " were built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Trietino yards in Trieste , and the SMS " Monarch " was constructed at the Naval Arsenal in Pula . The first ship of the class , the " Wien " , was laid down on 16 February 1893 . She was launched on 7 July 1895 , about a month after the " Monarch " . Despite this , the " Wien " was the first ship of the new class to be commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy , on 13 May 1897 . The second ship of the class , the " Monarch " , was laid down on 31 July 1893 , launched on 9 May 1895 , and was commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy on 11 May 1898 . The " Budapest " was the third and final ship of the class . She was laid down on the same day as the " Wien " , on 16 February 1893 , and launched from the Naval Arsenal in Pula on 24 July 1896 . She was commissioned on 12 May 1898 , a day after the " Monarch " . Design . Armament and armor . The members of the " Monarch " class displaced . Their armament consisted of four L / 40 guns with two guns in each of the two turrets , six L / 40 guns , 10 L / 44 guns , four L / 33 guns , one MG gun , and four torpedo tube s . Ships of the " Monarch " class were fitted with Harvey armour throughout . Their belt armor was thick except for the turrets , which had . The conning tower was protected by armor thick , and the deck by ; the redoubt and casemates had of armor . Propulsion and crew . " Monarch " - class ships normally carried 300 tons of coal , but could hold up to 500 tons . The " Budapest " was fitted with 12 coal - fired Belleville boilers without economizers , giving an output of . The " Wien " and the " Monarch " had coal - fired cylindrical boilers and vertical triple expansion engines with an output of . The " Wien " and the " Monarch " had a maximum speed of , compared to the " Budapest " ' s top speed of . Each ship was manned by 26 officers and 397 crewmen , a total of 423 personnel per ship . Service history . Peace time . Upon being commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy , the three ships of the " Monarch " class were used for a variety of purposes . All three ships of the " Monarch " class partook in a cruise around the Adriatic and Aegean in 1899 , to display the Austro - Hungarian flag in foreign waters . The " Monarch " class formed the I Battleship Division of the Austro - Hungarian Navy . The battleship " Wien " participated in the Diamond Jubilee of the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1897 , as well as the international blockade off Crete during the Greco - Turkish War of 1897 . However , less than five years after their completion , the " Monarch " - class battleships were rendered obsolete by the newly commissioned . The newly completed conducted a training cruise with the three " Monarch " - class battleships in January 1903 ; they were joined by the the following year . During the 1904 training exercises , the three " Habsburg " - class battleships engaged the three " Monarch " s in simulated combat ; the maneuver marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro - Hungarian Navy . The three " Habsburg " - class ships took over the position of the I Division while the " Monarch " s formed the newly created II Division . With other new classes of pre - dreadnoughts being built such as the , and later the , the " Monarch " s were demoted even further , and ended up in the V Battleship Division . They were serving as coastal defense ships by the beginning of World War I . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 , the three ships of the " Monarch " class were serving as the V Battleship Division , deployed as coastal defense ships . They also served as training ships , and were used to bombard coastal positions during the early years of the war . In August 1914 , the " Budapest " was transferred from Pula to Cattaro to shell Mount Lovcen . On 9 August 1914 the " Monarch " shelled the French radio station at Budva . She also bombarded the Montenegrin radio station off Bar on 17 August and another station off Volovica Point on 19 August where she attacked the local radio station and barracks . Following these operations , the " Monarch " served as a harbor defense ship . On 28 – 29 December 1915 the " Budapest " supported the cruisers and destroyers of the Austro - Hungarian Navy that were to raid Durazzo , but the detachment returned to port without having opened fire on the enemy . On 9 January 1916 , the " Budapest " again bombarded the fortifications on Mount Lovcen , and helped to capture the enemy - held mountain . In late 1917 the " Budapest " and " Wien " were sent to Trieste , and participated in shelling Italian troops in the Gulf of Trieste . On 10 December 1917 , two Italian torpedo boats managed to penetrate the port of Trieste undetected , and fired torpedoes at the battleships " Budapest " and " Wien " . The torpedo fired at the " Budapest " missed , but the " Wien " was hit twice and sank in less than five minutes in the shallow water of the Trieste harbor . Forty - six men serving on the " Wien " were killed in the attack . The " Budapest " was subsequently given the task that the " Monarch " had been performing for over three years , and was demoted to a floating barrack for German U - boat crews . In June 1918 the " Budapest " was renovated and had a L / 17 howitzer installed in her bow to use for coastal bombardment , but she never saw action with the new gun in place . At the end of the war in 1918 , the remaining " Monarch " - class battleships , the " Budapest " and the " Monarch " , were handed over to Great Britain as war reparations . In 1920 the two ships were sold for scrap to Italy , and were broken up between 1920 and 1922 . References . Online sources