training schedule was completed each year, the ships of the training squadron were demobilized in the reserve squadron, which was held in a state of partial readiness. In April 1907, Sankt Georg and the protected cruiser were sent to the United States to represent Austria-Hungary at the Jamestown Exposition, the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. In addition to the celebration at Jamestown, Sankt Georg also visited Annapolis and New York City while on the trip. In addition to the Austro-Hungarian delegation, the international fleet consisted of warships from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and several other nations. The event started on 26 April, and over the following two weeks, the crews from many of the ships, including Sankt Georg, competed in various sailing and rowing races. Of eighteen races, Sankt Georgs crew placed in six, winning two. World War I On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo; the assassination sparked the July Crisis and ultimately the First World War, which broke out a month later on 28 July. The German battlecruiser , which had been assigned to the Mediterranean Division, sought the protection of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and so Admiral Anton Haus sent the fleet, including Sankt Georg, south on 7 August to assist his German ally. Goebens commander, Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, intended to use the Austro-Hungarian move as a feint to distract the British Mediterranean Fleet which was pursuing Goeben; Souchon instead took his ship to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire. Their decoy mission complete, Sankt Georg and the rest of the fleet returned to port without engaging any British forces. Following the Italian declaration of war against the Central Powers on 23 May 1915, the entire Austro-Hungarian fleet sortied to bombard Italian coastal targets. Sankt Georg took part in the operation; escorted by a pair of torpedo boats, she shelled the city of Rimini. She damaged a railroad bridge and was not engaged by Italian forces. Thereafter, the Austro-Hungarians returned to their strategy of serving as a fleet in being, which would tie down Allied naval forces. Haus hoped that torpedo boats and mines could be used to reduce the numerical superiority of the Italian fleet before a decisive battle could be fought. For most of the war, Sankt Georg was assigned to the Cruiser