Ersatz Monarch-class battleship

A line drawing of the Ersatz Monarch-class battleship.
Class overview
NameErsatz Monarch class[b]
Builders
Operators Austro-Hungarian Navy
Preceded byTegetthoff class
Cost81,600,000–83,000,000 Kronen per battleship[a]
Planned4
Cancelled4
General characteristics
TypeBattleship
Displacement24,500 tonnes (24,100 long tons)
Length172 m (564 ft 4 in) (waterline)
Beam28.5 m (93 ft 6 in)
Draft8.4 m (27 ft 7 in)
Installed power
Propulsion4 shafts; 4 steam turbine sets
Speed21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew1,050 to 1,100 officers and men
Armament
Armor

The Ersatz Monarch class[b] (also informally known as the Improved Tegetthoff class[1]) was a class of four dreadnought battleships which were intended to be built between 1914 and 1919 for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine). Design work on a class of battleships to succeed the Tegetthoff class and replace the aging Monarch class began in 1911. After going through several different design proposals, Anton Haus, Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, secured passage of a naval expansion program through the Austro-Hungarian government to fund the construction of the battleships in April 1914.

Work on the first battleship was scheduled to begin a few months later, with the final ship was expected to be launched in mid-1919. However, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June halted work just days before the keel of the first ship in the class was scheduled to be laid down. With the start of World War I a month later, construction on the ships was postponed until September, when the war with Serbia was expected to be over. The Hungarian government attempted to cancel the ships in October, but it was agreed in February 1915 that any work on the battleships would be indefinitely suspended until the end of the war. The ships were eventually canceled in 1917 as the war entered its third year, although some of the guns ordered for them were completed and saw service.


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  1. ^ Sturton 1987, p. 12.

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