Page 61 - Adriatico 1848. Ricerca e significato della contrapposizione marittima - Atti 25 settembre 1998

THE AUSTRIAN NAVY IN THE ADRIAllC SEA IN THE REVOLU1l0NARY YEAR 1848 51

military governor ofTrieste, feldzeugmeister count Gyulay, who took over the pro-
visional high-command of the remaining and loyal parts of the Austrian navy.
Immediately he called back ali detached Austrian navy ships to Trieste, Pola and
Fiume.
After the desertion ol' further illoyal Italian members of the imperial tleet and
after the release of Italian persons questionable in their loyalty, the Austrian navy
cOllnted- in comparison with the former full numbers of roughly 5.000 men - only
72 officers ancl 665 meno This poor nllmber represented less than the half of the
former number of naval officers and about only 14 percent between noncommis-
sionecl officers ancl seamen.
The relation concerning the remaining Austrian ships looked somewhat bet-
ter. In the l'ollowing I will give you first the figures ol' numbers ol' ships ol' a cer-
tain c1ass bel'ore the revolution and then the number which remained in the hand
of the Austrians after the revolution in march in Venice:

Total Remaining Austrian
Class or ships number before revolution number after revolution
Fregates 3 3
Corvettes 6 2
Briggs or war 7 4
Transport Briggs 5 2
Goelettes (Scbooner) 3 2
War Steamers 2 1
Sub Tota! lnajor sbips (26) (14)
Peniche 31 27
Gun boats 19 5
Trabaccoli 3 12
Sub Tota! (9) (58)
Lagoon vehicles in Venice 71
Tota! CCI. 160 58

Even il' the total number of ships uncler contro I by the Austrians after the revo-
lution only comprisecl Cinclucling the lagoo11 vehicles of Venice) roughly one thirci
of the totali number ol' ships before the revolution, the percentage of sea going uni-
tes (58) summed up to more than two thircls of the former total number (79).
Therefore the real problem for thc Austrians was the lack of a sufficient num-
ber ol' experienceci naval ol'ficers of ali grades ancl especially also ol' decsmen, ol'
gunnery personne1 ancl of marines. The provisional Austrian naval aclministration
in Trieste actecl quickly ancl appointecl pupils of the naval college to sea cadets,
sea cadets ancl offìcers of the commerciai navy to auxiliary naval officcrs, lanci artil-
lery troops to sea artillery troops ancl infantry troops of the croatian-turkish fron-
tier, the successors of the formerly famous llskoks, to marines.