SMS Laudon

The keel for Laudon was laid down at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste in August 1871. She was launched on 20 September 1873 and was completed on 22 July 1874.^[2] By the time the ship entered service, Admiral Friedrich von Pöck—Tegetthoff's successor—had instituted a policy of keeping very few ships in commission to keep operating costs to an absolute minimum.^[4] The Spanish Navy offered to buy Radetzky and Laudon in 1879, but Pöck rejected the request.^[5] In 1880, Laudon and the ironclads Prinz Eugen and Custoza took part in an international naval demonstration against the Ottoman Empire to force the Ottomans to transfer the city of Ulcinj to Montenegro in accordance with the terms of the 1878 Congress of Berlin. Late in 1881, Laudon, the ironclad Erzherzog Albrecht, and several smaller vessels were sent to Cattaro Bay to help suppress a revolt there. During the operations, which concluded in March 1882, the ships bombarded rebel positions in the area. During the fighting, then-Lieutenant Leodegar Kneissler led a landing party from Laudon that engaged rebel forces ashore.^[6]

Following Pöck's replacement by Admiral Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck in 1884, the fleet took a more active role; for much of each year's training cycle, either Laudon or Radetzky would lead a division of a few unarmored vessels for operations in home waters.^[4] These cruises continued as late as the winter of 1896–1897, when Laudon once again led the division.^[7]

Laudon had her propulsion system removed in 1900, and she became a stationary training ship. She was also renamed Schwarzenberg at that time. She remained in the fleet's inventory through World War I, and in the postwar settlement, she was transferred to the Royal Yugoslav Navy in 1919, where she was renamed Prvi. Later that year, Italy seized the ship, towed it back to Italy, and broke her up in 1923.^[2]

• Sieche, Erwin & Bilzer, Ferdinand (1979). "Austria-Hungary". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 266–283. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9.