SMS Erzherzog Albrecht

Illustration of Erzherzog Albrecht, c. 1886
Class overview
Preceded by	SMS Custoza
Succeeded by	SMS Kaiser
History
Austria-Hungary
Name	Erzherzog Albrecht
Namesake	Archduke Albrecht
Builder	Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino
Laid down	1 June 1870
Launched	24 April 1872
Commissioned	June 1874
Out of service	1908
Fate	Ceded to Italy, 1920
History
Italy
Name	Buttafuoco
Acquired	1920
Fate	Scrapped, 1950
General characteristics
Type	Casemate ship
Displacement	5,980 long tons (6,080 t)
Length	87.87 m (288 ft 3 in) lwl 89.69 m (294 ft 3 in) o/a
Beam	17.15 m (56 ft 3 in)
Draft	6.72 m (22 ft)
Installed power	3,969 indicated horsepower (2,960 kW)
Propulsion	1 × marine steam engine 1 × screw
Speed	12.84 knots (23.78 km/h; 14.78 mph)
Crew	540
Armament	8 × 24 cm (9.4 in) guns 6 × 9 cm (3.5 in) guns 2 × 7 cm (2.8 in) guns
Armor	Belt armor: 203 mm (8 in) Casemate: 177 mm (7 in)

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.