 In November 1916, Germany had inquired to find out if Austria-Hungary were interested in purchasing existing German submarines because Germany was having a hard time finding trained submarine crews.After protracted negotiations, which had stalled over the outflow of Austro-Hungarian gold reserves to Germany, an agreement to purchase two submarines—"UB-43" and "UB-47"—was reached in June 1917.The German UB II design of coastal submarines was a development from the design of the UB I boats, which had been originally ordered in September 1914.