in Budapest to pass a budget, the money necessary to pay for the ships could not be obtained. As a result, the largest shipbuilding enterprises in Austria-Hungary, the Witkowitz Ironworks and the Škoda Works, offered to begin construction on the first three ships of the Tegetthoff class, Viribus Unitis, Tegetthoff, and Prinz Eugen at their own financial risk, in return for assurances that the Austro-Hungarian government would purchase the battleships as soon as funds were available. After negotiations which involved the Austro-Hungarian joint ministries of foreign affairs, war and finance, the offer was agreed to by Montecuccoli, but the number of dreadnoughts constructed under this arrangement was reduced to just Tegetthoff and Viribus Unitis. In his memoirs, former Austrian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf wrote that due to his belief that a war with Italy in the near future was likely, construction on the battleships should begin as soon as possible. He also worked to secure agreements to sell both Tegetthoff and Viribus Unitis to, in his words, a "reliable ally" (which only Germany could claim to be) should the budget crisis in Budapest fail to be settled quickly. Outline Although smaller than the contemporary dreadnought and super-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine and the British Royal Navy, Prinz Eugen was part of the first class of its type in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Prinz Eugen and her sister ships were described by former Austro-Hungarian naval officer Anthony Sokol in his book The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy as "excellent ships", and she was knowledged as one of the most powerful battleships in the region. The design of the battleship also signaled a change in Austro-Hungarian naval policy, as she was capable of far more than coastal defense or patrolling the Adriatic Sea. Indeed, Prinz Eugen and her sister ships were so well received that when the time came to plan for the replacement of Austria-Hungary's old s, the navy elected to simply take the layout of her class and enlarge them to have a slightly greater tonnage and larger main guns. Funding The cost to construct Prinz Eugen was enormous by the standards of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. While the , , and the Radetzky-class battleships cost the navy roughly 18, 26, and 40 million krone per ship, Prinz Eugen was projected to cost over 60 million krone. Under the previous budgets