In 1862 the Confederate agent Louis Merton approached the Austrian government for a passible naval arms deal. Relations between the Austrian Empire and the North were poor during the war, partly due to the building of two ironclad, in New York City for the Austrian rival, Italy. Over the next few months into 1863 negotiations took place between Merton and Archduke Ferdinand Max, head of the Austrian navy and future Emperor of Mexico. Merton in 1862 was interested in wooden warships, but by 1863 primarily ironclads.
Max tried to interest the Confederacy in one older 31-gun steam frigate, two 22-gun steam corvettes, and 23 smaller warships, many of them gunboats. Max wanted to keep his small ironclad fleet Austrian in case of war with the growing Italian ironclad fleet. Max also hoped to sell the older warships so he could use the money to buy more ironclads.
The asking prices were too high and the drafts of the larger vessels too deep to be of value in the Confederate naval service. Max, for his part, would not allow the building of ironclads for the Confederacy at any of the busy private or government owned Austrian shipyards.
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