The was built to the same design as the C-class for the US Navy and was built by Robert Whitehead's firm of Whitehead & Co. under license from Holland and his company, Electric Boat. Components for the first two Austrian boats were manufactured by the Electric Boat Company and assembled at Fiume, while the third boat was a speculative private venture by Whitehead that failed to find a buyer and was purchased by Austria-Hungary upon the outbreak of World War I.