When Croatia was a part of Austria-Hungary, its Adriatic coast was essentially the only access to sea this Central European state had. A Habsburg arsenal and a naval shipyard were established in Kraljevica in 1729, while naval bases, schools, shipyards, headquarters and a naval academy were later set up in Pula and Rijeka. Navy's emblem included Croatian coat of arms. Many highly ranked officers came from Croatia: grand admiral Maximilian Njegovan, ship-of-the-line captain Janko Vuković Podkapelski and others. In 1885, 44.9% of sailors and NCOs and 10.3% of naval officers came from Croatia, while in 1910 those shares dropped to 29.8% and 9.8%, respectively. Czech military historian Jindřich Marek points out that "Croats were more often applied to heavy labour as stokers and deck hands" and were at comparative disadvantage due to their lack of swimming and German language skills. At the end of October 1918, while Austria-Hungary was falling apart and the war was drawing to an end, emperor Charles handed the Navy over to the Zagreb People's Council, which promoted Vuković to the rank of the rear admiral and appointed him as a fleet commander. Croatian flag was hoisted on all ships in Pula (including, most notably, the flagship SMS "Viribus Unitis") and some in Kotor, but the Entente navies soon captured nearly all vessels and divided them among themselves.