Austro-Hungarian naval expeditions

[yerbamatt]

Well, to tell the truth - I do not know much about it.

Truly, there were some timid, though quite spectacular expeditions like the Indian Ocean Expedition (the famous SMS Novarra - yes, the same that brought Maximilian to Mexico in 1864 and took his body back to Austria three years later)...

http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/ ... html#Intro

... the Austrian-Hungarian Northpole Expedition in 1872-1874 (SMS Tegetthof) - they discovered Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in the Arctic...

http://www.hr/darko/etf/arctic.html

... and Franz Ferdinand's Grand World Tour overboard SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth in 1892-1893, as well some minor naval involvement in China in 1900 (SMS Zenta in the Boxer Rebellion).

http://www.btinternet.com/~j.pasteur/Navy.html

Is that all - no colonial ambitions?

Regards...

[Loïc]

Against Morocco 1829
The Austrian Navy (Bandiera) bombarded Moroccan Mediterranean (Tetouan) and Atlantic (Larache, Arzila) ports between june and september 1829, did a landing in Larache where the Austrians lost men and the sailors their heads

Against Egyptian Syria 1840
to the brink of a full-scale war in Europe for Syria between the old coalition, Russia Prussia Austria Great Britain and Turkey, against France and Egypt, the Austrian navy with the same Bandiera (frigates Medea Guerriera and corvette Lipsia) participated in a tripartite anglo-turkish operation in Syria in september 1840 with landing of troops, c.500 to 1000 men

Regards
Loïc

[zaptiè]

"Novara",( after the austrian victory in this town in 1949) not Novarra.

[Frech]

"Novara",( after the austrian victory in this town in 1949) not Novarra.

Maybe "23.03.1849" instead of "1949"?

[zaptiè]

yes, 1849, sorry!!

[BRie]

... Is that all - no colonial ambitions? ...

There were, there were.

I thus want to add the, to my knowledge, second circumnavigation by a A.-H. ship, namely HMS (in German SMS) “Erzherzog Friedrich” from 1874 to 176. The Gesamtdetail-Offizier (= erster Offizier, chief officer) Josef Lehnert wrote a two volume tome about this journey (Um die Erde / Around the world vol.1 and vol.2, both 1878).
What is of particular interest to the quoted question is, that at that time Austrian authorities were interested in establishing a colony of kinds in Northern Borneo. Here the translated, and abbreviated, quote from the German Wikipedia regarding that time in the mid-1870ies:

… the Austrian businessman Gustav Freiherr von Overbeck wanted to acquire land in the north-east of the island of Borneo for the Austrian monarchy .... Austria sent the corvette Erzherzog Friedrich to Asia to explore the land Overbeck had in mind. After a skirmish with natives on the coast of Borneo, at the mouth of the Siboku River, on May 7, 1875, Vienna's interest in a colony on Borneo ended…

The report of the ships captain is cited by Dieter Winkler in his article Von Piraten umgebracht – die Weltumsegelung der Korvette Erzherzog Friedrich in full length click.

The map shows Friedrich's route, superimposed with that of another vessel, the SMS Saida, going to the Far East and Australia in 1892 to 1894 (you’ll find a list of newspaper clips covering her journey through Australians waters here). Red marker: composite view of the officers of the EH Friedrich was assembled by a photography studio, Bradley & Rulofson.