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Friedrich von Pöck (19 August 1825 – 25 September 1884) was an Austro-Hungarian admiral and commander of the
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...
. In this role, he held the positions as ''Marinekommandant'' and Chief of the ''Marinesektion'' from 1871 to his retirement in 1883. He had previously commanded the
ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
during the
Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...
in 1864, though he saw no action. During the
Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
, he served as the adjutant to Archduke Albrecht during his campaign to defend Venice from the Italian army. He replaced
Wilhelm von Tegetthoff Wilhelm von Tegetthoff (23 December 18277 April 1871) was an Austrian admiral. He commanded the fleet of the North Sea during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He is often considered by some Austrian historian ...
, the popular victor of the Battle of Lissa, who died in 1871. Unlike his predecessor, Pöck was unable to leverage his uneventful naval career to secure funding from the frequently hostile Austro-Hungarian parliament, resulting in more than a decade of stagnation for the fleet. Nevertheless, he did introduce the use of
torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
-armed vessels and began developing tactics to use them. He also sent cruising vessels on numerous voyages abroad, which helped to show the flag overseas. In late 1883, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was forced to retire, ceding his position to
Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck Maximilian Daublebsky Freiherr von Sterneck zu Ehrenstein (14 February 1829 – 5 December 1897) was an Austrian admiral who served as the chief administrator of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1883 until his death. Biography He was born at Klagen ...
in November. Pöck died ten months later, on 25 September 1884.


Early life and naval career

Friedrich von Pöck was born on 19 August 1825 in Szobotist, Komitat Neutra, in the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephe ...
, then part of the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
. He was the son of the Austrian army officer Colonel Freiherr von Pöck and his wife, Marie Freifrau Horeczky von Kraszna-Horka und Koricsan. Pöck was educated at the old Austrian naval academy in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, graduating in 1843. After beginning his service in the fleet, he became a protege of Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf after serving as his second in command during their circumnavigation of the globe aboard the steam frigate in the late 1850s. During the
Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...
in 1864, he commanded the
ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
on a deployment to the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
, again under Wüllerstorf. He did not see action, as an advance squadron
Wilhelm von Tegetthoff Wilhelm von Tegetthoff (23 December 18277 April 1871) was an Austrian admiral. He commanded the fleet of the North Sea during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He is often considered by some Austrian historian ...
had broken the Danish blockade of the northern German ports at the Battle of Heligoland. Following Wüllerstorf's retirement, Pöck became the adjutant of Archduke Leopold, the new head of the Austrian Navy. During this period, Pöck was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. During the
Seven Weeks' War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
against Prussia and Italy, Tegetthoff was placed in command of the battle fleet. Pöck was instead assigned as the naval liaison for Archduke Albrecht in Venetia. Pöck replaced Tegetthoff as the fleet commander after the latter became the Navy chief, a position Pöck held until January 1870. He was then promoted to the second in command of the Navy, though he succeeded Tegetthoff after his untimely death in April 1871. This role filled two positions, with Pöck serving as the ''Marinekommandant'' and the Chief of the ''Marinesektion''. Rear Admiral Georg von Millosicz in turn took Pöck's previous position as second in command.Sondhaus, p. 36


''Marinekommandant''

Pöck faced chronic budgetary problems, owing in large part due to obstructionism from Hungarians and liberal Germans in parliament, the former viewing naval matters as an Austrian concern, and the latter opposed to naval expansion in light of the reduced threat from Italy in the 1870s. Additionally, since he was not involved in Tegetthoff's victory at the Battle of Lissa in 1866, he lacked the personal prestige to command the respect of parliament. As a result, he had great difficulty securing the funding for new
ironclad warship An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
s during his tenure. He finally won approval for a new ship, , in 1875 but he could not convince parliament to allocate funds for a
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
he had planned to name ''Erzherzog Karl''. Confronted with parliamentary unwillingness to strengthen the fleet further, Pöck resorted to subterfuge to acquire the funds he needed. In 1875, he asked for a budget increase to "rebuild" the three s. In fact, Pöck sold the old vessels for scrap, reusing only the machinery, armor plate, and other fittings in three new ships, which were given the same names to obscure Pöck's sleight of hand. Throughout this period, the annual budget for the fleet continued to fall, from 9.5 million
florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purch ...
in 1878 to 8 million in 1880. Pöck continued to push for another new ironclad, but by 1880 his efforts were only symbolic: in his proposed budget estimates for the year, he included the ship, but did not actually allocate any funds for it. Unable to increase the strength of the ironclad fleet, Pöck turned to less expensive means to defend Austria-Hungary's coastline, including development of
naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ve ...
s and self-propelled
torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
es. He ordered the first
torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of s ...
, ''Torpedoboot I'', from Britain in 1875, followed by five more from Britain and four more from domestic shipyards thereafter. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, he also ordered the four
torpedo cruiser A torpedo cruiser is a type of warship that is armed primarily with torpedoes. The major navies began building torpedo cruisers shortly after the invention of the locomotive Whitehead torpedo in the 1860s. The development of the torpedo gave rise ...
s , , , and . The commissioning of the very powerful Italian s in 1880 caused a naval scare in Austria-Hungary, prompting Kaiser
Franz Josef I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
ordered a joint army-navy commission to examine the problem. Pöck argued that the fleet would have to seek parity with the Italian fleet, which planned to build a fleet of sixteen battleships by 1888. Archduke Albrecht, then the inspector general of the army, argued that parity was impossible, and that the navy would have to focus instead on defensive weapons and tactics. In response, Pöck formulated a new fleet plan in 1881 that aimed simply to maintain the number of ironclads in service, replacing only the oldest four by 1888. Two would be replaced by new ships, and the other two would be "rebuilt" like the ''Kaiser Max''es a decade earlier. The plan was accepted by parliament, but they delayed its completion to 1892, which would reduce the annual expenditure from 2.15 million florins to 1.7 million. The heaviest blow to Pöck's plans came in 1882, with the signing of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy, which removed the threat of a hostile Italian fleet across the Adriatic. Thereafter, funding for the new warships authorized under the 1881 program was consistently trimmed in the annual budgets. This delayed construction of a replacement for the decrepit ironclad and the "reconstruction" of , which ultimately never took place. To combat reduced morale in the face of quantitative stagnation with the ironclad fleet, Pöck increased the number of ships sent abroad. Unarmored cruising ships were sent to ports around the world to represent Austria-Hungary throughout the 1870s and 1880s. He also sent ships to conduct scientific explorations in the
Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...
in 1872–1874 and 1882–1883. These cruises logged more time abroad for Austro-Hungarian warships than the rest of the history of the navy combined. He also began experimenting with the new torpedo boats and developing tactics to use them in battle. In September 1882, Pöck held major maneuvers to test methods to get the small craft close enough to attack larger, more powerful ironclads. Franz Josef, impressed by the exercises, promoted Pöck to full admiral. Exhausted from more than a decade of service as the ''Marinekommandant'' and struggling with parliament, Pöck suffered a nervous breakdown in early November 1883. He was ordered to resign his commission, and his position was filled by Admiral
Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck Maximilian Daublebsky Freiherr von Sterneck zu Ehrenstein (14 February 1829 – 5 December 1897) was an Austrian admiral who served as the chief administrator of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1883 until his death. Biography He was born at Klagen ...
on 13 November. Pöck died ten months later, on 25 September 1884 in Feldhof near
Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popu ...
. Pöck's efforts eventually did bear fruit, though he did not live long enough to see it. "''Ersatz Salamander''" (Replacement ''Salamander'') was eventually
laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
in January 1884 and commissioned in September 1889 as . And Sterneck used Pöck's budgetary subterfuge tactic to acquire another new ironclad, , by appropriating funds Pöck had secured to rebuild to construct the new vessel.Sondhaus, pp. 86–87


Notes


References

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Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pock, Friedrich von 1825 births 1884 deaths Austro-Hungarian admirals