This book wants to provide the English speaking reader with a brief but comprehensive overview on Austrian naval history. It tries to put the Austrian navy in the right historical context, in terms of European history as well as in terms of naval history. Austria was not a genuine naval power for centuries, but it maintained a significant, modern and innovative navy with German as the language of command from the mid-19th century until 1918; it was then the the 8th largest navy in the world.