In March 1911, the date of the launch was fi xed as 24 June 1911. Škoda also informed the Navy that the delivery of the 30.5 guns of the fi rst unit would be delayed by a few months.204Ģ06 Despite the initial problems, the construction of the Schlachtschiff IV progressed well. Work on the fi rst unit progressed well despite the constant minor modifi cations of the plans, but the delays of some subcontractors, Witkowitz among them, foreshadowed the exceeding of the time limit. Two months later, on 24 September the keel of the second unit was also laid down. Due to the need for secrecy the usual ceremony was cancelled. It posed a problem that even in April 1910 some detailed plans were missing, so the subcontractors could not start to manufacture these parts in time.203 On 24 July, the keel of the fi rst unit was laid down. Cover-names were needed because offi cially the Navy did not order these ships. Th e cover-names of the two units were Objekt 427 and Objekt 428. Th e STT deposited 4.2 million Kronen (10 percent) at the Creditanstalt in accordance with the contract.200 In January 1910, the Navy signed the contract with the Škoda on the armament.201 On 9 November 1909, the Navy signed the contract with the Wit ko witz Ironworks on the armor of the fi rst two dreadnoughts.202 Th e preparatory works of starting the lofting process in the mold loft on the two battleships were started in the spring of 1910. Rothschild was ready to accomplish this expansion, but he made mention of some risks.197 During the negotiations the STT took the necessary steps for building the 20,000 ton battleships: the machinery shop was enlarged and the cranes of the two large slipways were heightened.198īattleship with ammunition was 60.6 million Kronen. Montecuccoli requested Albert Rothschild, the owner of Witkowitz Ironworks, to increase his armor manufacturing capacity to 7,000 tons per year. In August 1909, the Marinesektion informed Škoda that for the new battleships it should manufacture sixteen triple turrets and forty-eight 30.5 cm guns and for the fi rst unit it should deliver the complete armament in 1912. Th e task was challenging because the manufacturing of these items should take place over the same period (four years) as in the case of the Radetzky class even though the new battleships had 20,000 tons of armor instead of 11,000 tons and their gun turrets weighed 11,000 tons instead of 5,400 tons. During the negotiations on the building at the industries’ own risk, coming to terms with the Škoda and the Witkowitz works was more important than with the STT because the determinant factors of the construction time of a battleship were the gun turrets and armor rather than the hull and machinery.
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