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SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I (sometimes called the Kaiser Franz Josef I) was a protected cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for the Austrian emperor and Hungarian king Franz Joseph I, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the lead ship of her namesake class. Constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, she was laid down in January 1888 and launched in May 1889. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was commissioned into the Navy in June 1890. As the first protected cruiser constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she was intended to serve as Austria-Hungary's response to the Italian cruisers Giovanni Bausan and Etna. Her design was heavily influenced by the Jeune École (Young School), a naval strategy which had gained prominence in the 1880s as a means to combat a larger and more heavily armored navy of battleships through the use of torpedo flotillas.
Changes in technology and strategic thinking through the adoption of Alfred Thayer Mahan's "decisive battle" doctrine which stressed the construction of powerful battleships as the primary capital ship of navies around the world rendered the design of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I obsolete shortly after her commissioning. Nevertheless, she and her sister ship Kaiserin Elisabeth remained an important component of Austro-Hungarian naval policy, which continued to emphasize coastal defense and overseas missions to show the flag around the world. During the course of her career, Kaiser Franz Joseph I participated in several overseas voyages, including several tours of duty to defend Austro-Hungarian interests in China following the Boxer Rebellion.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was assigned to the Fifth Battle Division and stationed at the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro. Due to her age and obsolete design, Kaiser Franz Joseph I saw little action during most of the conflict, though she did participate in shelling Franco-Montenegrin artillery batteries located on the slopes of Mount Lovćen in late 1914, which overshadowed the Bocche di Cattaro. In January 1916, when the Austria-Hungary began an invasion of Montenegro, Kaiser Franz Joseph I assisted in again silencing Montenegrin batteries on Mount Lovćen in support of the Austro-Hungarian Army, which seized the mountain and subsequently captured the Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, knocking the country out of the war.
In 1917, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was decommissioned, disarmed, and converted into a headquarters ship for the Austro-Hungarian base at Cattaro. She remained in this capacity through the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in October 1918, the Austrian government transferred its navy to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allies. Following the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, an Allied fleet sailed into Cattaro and seized the former Austro-Hungarian ships stationed in the Bocche, including Kaiser Franz Joseph I. She was ceded to France as a war reparation after the war, but sank during a gale off Kumbor in October 1919. Her wreck was twice salvaged in 1922 and 1967. Two of her cannons are in Cetinje, Montenegro.
(Source: wikipedia.org)