The Austrian navy was to posses in 1905 nine modern battleships and so to be strong enough for a well coastal defence and to maintain her authority in the territorial waters. The battleships were to be part of 3 divisions of which 2 divisions were fitted out while for the 3rd division 3 ships were laid down and which were to be completed in 1905. Except for the 7 new cruisers all ready in service was the keel laid down of 2 very large cruisers each of 7,400 ton. Further more was men busy with the building of 15 torpedo boats and was to start within short time with the renewal of the river flotilla including 2 Danube monitors and 5 patrol boats. The naval program started in 1882 when vice admiral Sternegg became minister. He worked until his death about 5 years ago on a naval program which Austria according to him needed. The new coastal defence ships and cruisers of the Austrian navy were much larger as the Dutch wrote the journalist but their naval budget was much higher. (1)
Note
1. In a earlier item in this newspaper dated 22 January 1902 suggested the journalist still that the Austrian budget was in fact not extremely larger as the Dutch!
