SMS Prinz Eugen For other uses of " Prinz Eugen " , see http : / / en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Prinz _ Eugen _ ( disambiguation ) SMS " Prinz Eugen " was an Austro - Hungarian dreadnought battleship of the . " Prinz Eugen " was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino yard , Trieste . During World War I , " Prinz Eugen " participated in the pursuit of the " Goeben " and " Breslau " as well as the bombardment of Ancona . She remained in port in Pola for the rest of the war until she took part in an ill - fated raid on the Otranto Barrage in 1918 that resulted in the loss of her sister ship , " Szent István " . Following the end of the war in late 1918 , " Prinz Eugen " was surrendered to France and later sunk as a target ship in 1922 . Characteristics . Launched in late March 1912 , " Prinz Eugen " had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load . She displaced at load and at deep load . " Prinz Eugen " had four Parsons steam turbines , each of which was housed in a separate engine - room . The turbines were powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers . The turbines were designed to produce a total of , which was theoretically enough to attain her designed speed of , but no figures from her speed trials are known to exist . She carried of coal , and an additional of fuel oil that was to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate . At full capacity , she could steam for at a speed of . " Prinz Eugen " mounted twelve / 45 - caliber K 10 guns in four triple turrets . Her secondary armament consisted of twelve / 50 K 10 guns mounted in casemate s amidships . Twelve / 50 K 10 guns were mounted on open pivots on the upper deck above the casemates . Three more 66 - mm K 10 guns were mounted on the upper turrets for anti - aircraft duties . Four submerged torpedo tube s were fitted , one each in the bow , stern and on each broadside ; twelve torpedoes were carried . Construction . " Prinz Eugen " was ordered by the Austro - Hungarian Navy in 1908 . She was the third battleship of the " Tegetthoff " class , the first dreadnoughts of the Austro - Hungarian Navy , to be built . The keel of " Prinz Eugen " was laid down in Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste on 16 January 1912 . Following 11 months of construction , " Prinz Eugen " was launched on 30 November 1912 . After her fitting out , she was commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy on 8 July 1914 , only ten days after Archduke Franz Ferdinand ' s assassination that initiated World War I . World War I . Prior to the war , " Prinz Eugen " was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of Austro - Hungarian Navy . During World War I , the battleship saw limited service due to the Otranto Barrage which prohibited Austro - Hungarian battleships from leaving the Adriatic sea . As a result , she hardly ever left Pola . " Prinz Eugen " , along with her sister ships " Viribus Unitis " and " Tegetthoff " and the remainder of the Austro - Hungarian Navy , was mobilized on the eve of World War I to support the flight of and . The two German ships were stationed in the Mediterranean and were attempting to break out of the strait of Messina , which was surrounded by British troops and vessels and make their way to Turkey . After the Germans successfully broke out of Messina , the navy was recalled . The fleet had by that time advanced as far south as Brindisi in south eastern Italy . " Prinz Eugen " also participated in the bombardment of the Italian city of Ancona in May 1915 . Following these operations " Prinz Eugen " remained in Pola for most of the remainder of the war . Aside from the pursuit of the " Goeben " and " Breslau " in the early months of the war , " Prinz Eugen " and her sister ships only conducted one operation during the course of the war until the ill - fated attack on the Otranto Barrage in 1918 , the bombardment of Ancona following Italy ' s declaration of war on Austria - Hungary in May 1915 . Though she would remain in port for another three years , " Prinz Eugen " s stay in Pola was enlivened by a visit from the new Emperor Karl I on 15 December 1916 and another by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II on 12 December 1917 during his inspection of the German submarine base in the port city . The Italian Air Force conducted at least eighty air raids on Pola between 1915 and 1917 which probably kept the crews of her anti - aircraft guns busy . The Otranto Raid . By mid 1918 , the new commander of the Austrian fleet , Konteradmiral Miklós Horthy decided to conduct another attack on the Otranto Barrage , similar to the Otranto Raid from December 1916 , to allow more German and Austro - Hungarian U - boats to safely get through the heavily defended strait of Otranto . During the night of 8 June , Horthy left the naval base of Pola with the " Prinz Eugen " and the " Viribus Unitis " . " Tegetthoff " and , along with one destroyer and six torpedo boat s departed Pola on 9 June . At about 3 : 15 on the morning of 10 June , two Italian MAS boats , " MAS 15 " and " MAS 21 " , spotted the Austrian fleet steaming south . The MAS platoon was commanded by " Capitano di fregata " Luigi Rizzo while the individual boats were commanded by " Capo timoniere " Armando Gori and " Guardiamarina di complemento " Giuseppe Aonzo respectively . Both boats successfully penetrated the escort screen and split to engage each of the dreadnoughts . " MAS 21 " attacked " Tegetthoff " , but her torpedoes missed the battleship . Despite missing " Tegetthoff " , the other boat , " MAS 15 " , managed to hit " Tegetthoff " s sister ship " Szent István " with her torpedoes at about 3 : 25 am . Both boats were then chased away from the scene by Austrian escort vessels . Following the " Szent István " being hit by torpedoes , " Tegetthoff " attempted to take the crippled " Szent István " into tow . However this attempt , as well as training the ship ' s turrets and placing her crew to port as well as throwing any ready ammunition overboard failed and the battleship continued to sink . The attempt to tow the " Szent István " was then abandoned . A few minutes after 6 : 00 am the " Szent István " capsized and sank . Admiral Horthy soon canceled the attack because he thought that the Italians had discovered his plan and ordered the ships to return to Pola . On the contrary , the Italians did not even discover that the Austrian dreadnoughts had departed Pola until later on 10 June when aerial reconnaissance photos revealed that they were no longer there . This was the last military operation that " Prinz Eugen " was to take part in and she spent the rest of her career at port in Pola . Post - war fate . After the war , " Prinz Eugen " was handed over to France . The French removed the main armament for inspection and used the ship to test aerial bombardment attacks , before she was finally used as a target ship by the battleships , , and , and sunk in the Atlantic in June 1922 . References . Explanatory notes Citations