The naval battle off the island of Lissa, July 1866

Italy had previously concluded a wartime alliance with Prussia. War broke out between Prussia and Austria in mid-June 1866. Italy then also declared war on Austria and had its troops march into Veneto. Although the Italian army outnumbered the Austrians, it was defeated at Custozza on June 24 and forced to retreat; shortly before the Italians were ready to resume the offensive, Napoleon III telegraphed on the night of July 4, 1866 that Austria had offered to cede Veneto to him on the basis of an armistice in order to return it to Italy. However, Napoleon III’s own plans were thwarted by his defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz. The emperor’s telegram was followed three days later by the threat that he would return Venice to Austria if the armistice was rejected and perhaps enter into an alliance with it. This put the Italians in a terrible dilemma. Risking a break with France was too great a risk.
The Italians replied to the Emperor that they could not conclude an armistice without Prussian consent and made acceptance conditional on the immediate surrender of the Venetian fortresses and French support for their claims to Trieste. In the meantime, Italy wanted to use the time to occupy Istria and later use it as a bargaining chip in the peace negotiations.
Admiral Persano had already been instructed on June 10, 1866 to clear the Adriatic of enemy warships and merchant ships and to make Ancona an operational base in the Adriatic, but not to attack Trieste and Venice for the time being.

After Austria officially declared war on Italy on June 20, 1866, the Italians initially planned to occupy the Austrian coastal land on the Adriatic. After Vice-Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff was informed of the declaration of war, he immediately took the necessary measures to take offensive action against the Italian enemy fleet when the opportunity arose.

In order to obtain information about the strength and movements of the Italians, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff sent the steamer Stadium to reconnoitre the coast from Ancona to Bari on the very same day. On June 23, 1866, the Stadium returned with the news that no enemy warships had been sighted. Assuming that the Italians had only assembled part of their fleet in the roadstead at Ancona, the rear admiral quickly decided to undertake a reconnaissance voyage from Fasana to Ancona.
On June 24, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff asked Archduke Albrecht whether he might be permitted to take the offensive and undertake reconnaissance missions along the Italian coast. In the meantime, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had held a council of war with all ship commanders and weighed up the chances of an operation against Ancona and a possible attack on the Italian ships anchored there.
With the approval of the high command, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff set sail from Fasana on the evening of June 26 with the armored frigate Archduke Ferdinand Max. After the Italian coast came into sight at dawn, the Austrians set course for Monte Conero. At around 4:00 a.m., the lookout on the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sighted smoke in the direction of the course. Soon afterwards, at around 4:20 a.m., a steamer was sighted by the Elisabeth. The Elisabeth was immediately ordered to reconnoitre. When the Elisabeth had approached the foreign steamer to within about 1.5 nautical miles, the foreign ship – the Radaviso Esploratore under the command of Marchese di Orengo – hoisted the Italian flag. This was answered by the Elisabeth by hoisting her own flag and firing a few shots, whereupon the Esploratore immediately turned and headed for Ancona. The Elisabeth tried to cut off the Italian ship, but the Esploratore soon got out of range due to her greater speed. At 5:30 a.m. she was about 2.5 nautical miles from Ancona. Contrary to expectations, the enemy fleet was almost completely anchored on the Rede. The Italians, alerted by the Esploratore, then set off. At around 6:30 a.m., four armored ships approached Monte Conero in their wake, followed at intervals by other Italian ships. Several wooden ships formed a second wake between the armored ships. Due to the superiority of the proximity of the shore batteries and a possible naval mine belt, Rear Admiral von Tegetthoff decided to retreat to Fasana at 7:30 am.

Admiral Persano crossed the latitude of Lissa from July 9 to 11, but without taking action against the Austrians. His passive behavior was increasingly criticized and the Minister of the Navy ordered him to finally take some kind of promising action. Consequently, it was decided to occupy the island of Lissa. The aim was to create a maritime base of operations so that the Italian land force could later land in Dalmatia relatively safely.

The Italian fleet
The Re di Italia and the Re di Portogallo were both built in New York. They had a displacement of 5,700 tons each, 177mm thick armor and were equipped with powerful artillery. However, they were not good seagoing vessels as they lacked buoyancy and maneuverability, and their rudders were unprotected. Italy also had the Affondatore, a turret ship built in Great Britain in 1866. The ship had 127mm armor and was equipped with two 300-pounder Armstrong guns and an 8-meter-long ramming spur. According to an article in the London Times, it was capable of destroying the Austrian fleet single-handedly if necessary. However, the Affondatore also had serious design flaws. The Maria Pia, the Castelfidardo, the Ancona, the San Martino and the Principe Carignano were also ironclads and had a continuous armored belt on the waterline. The two smaller ironclads Terribile and Formidabile, each with a displacement of 2,700 tons, were built in France. They had 101mm thick armor and were equipped with 152mm guns. Two armored gunboats, the Palestro and the Varese, each carried two Armstrong 150-pounders and some smaller guns. Behind these twelve ships, which formed the first line of the Italian fleet, were nine wooden frigates and corvettes with steam propulsion, but of the older type that armor had made obsolete. Dissatisfied with the state of his fleet, Persano repeatedly pointed out a number of deficiencies to the responsible naval minister, General Diego Angioletti. Persano estimated that he would need at least another month to get the fleet into fighting condition. On June 20, Angioletti was replaced by Agostino Depretis, who ordered Persano to set sail immediately and assemble the fleet in Ancona.

The Austrian fleet
The Austrians had the armored ships Habsburg, Ferdinand Max, Drache, Kaiser Max, Prinz Eugen, Don Juan d’Austria and Salamander (each with 101mm thick armor) and a large number of obsolete muzzle-loading guns at their disposal. In addition, the fleet consisted of the liner Kaiser with ninety-one guns, the frigates Adria, Donau, Novara, Radetzky and Schwarzenberg as well as ten gunboats. Admiral Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff, who was extremely popular with his subordinates, was regarded as one of the most experienced and creative naval commanders in Europe after the naval battle at Helgoland in the German-Danish War, especially when it came to compensating for the Austrian fleet’s lack of combat power with emergency solutions. After Austria came into possession of the island of Lissa in 1815, the existing fortifications were strengthened and new works added. At this time, 1,833 Austrian soldiers (most of them Croats) under the command of Colonel David Freiherr von Urs de Margina and around 100 cannons were available for the defense of the rugged and densely wooded island. There was also a police station on the 585-metre-high hill of Hum, which was connected to the Dalmatian mainland by telegraph via the neighboring island of Lesina (=Hvar).
Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff was not completely free in his choice of attack formation. The planned attack required the armored division to form the vanguard and at the same time to adopt a formation that would enable it to attack the enemy at full speed. However, as the Austrian ships did not all reach the same speed, he decided against the keel line formation. With this formation, there was a risk that the faster ships would collide with the slower ships when breaking out of the line. For this reason, and to ensure optimal utilization of his combat power, he decided on a wedge formation. Admiral Persano divided his armored ships into three divisions. The first division under Rear Admiral Giovanni Vacca consisted of the Principe de Carignano, the Castelfidardo and the Ancona. The second division under Admiral Persano: with the Re d’ Italia, the Palestro and the San Martino. And finally the third division under Captain Riboty: with the Re de Portugalo, the Varese, the Maria Pia, the Terribile and the Formidabile. Rear Admiral Giovanni Battista Albini’s squadron consisted of four frigates, a corvette, five reconnaissance vessels, three gunboats, a hospital ship and two troop transports.

The attack
Admiral Persano set sail on the afternoon of July 16. The fleet initially took a north-easterly course in order to conceal the target of the attack. During the night of July 16-17, the Messaggero, sailing under a (false) British flag with Chief of Staff d’Amico on board, approached the coast to reconnoitre the positions of the coastal batteries and fortresses. Persano‘s plan was to bombard San Georgio (the port of Vis) with most of his fleet and destroy the fortresses of Comisa (= Komiža) with a smaller detachment so that a later arriving force could land there. The gunboats were sent to Lesina (=Hvar) on the island of Hvar to cut the telegraph cable to Lissa (=Vis) and destroy all boats that could transmit information to the mainland. A scout was sent to cruise between the islands of Pelagosa (=Palagruža) and St. Andrea (= Sveti Andrija). This division exposed the Italians to the risk of being destroyed by locally superior Austrian units. In addition, so much time was lost in issuing orders that should have been given before the fleet left that the Italians did not reach their position until after 10 a.m. on July 18. Thanks to this delay, the Austrians had had enough time to telegraph the arrival of the Italians to Wilhelm Tegetthoff.
At 10:30 a.m. Persano gave the order to attack. The first division under Rear Admiral Vacca approached the batteries at Komiža under fire up to 1,500 meters and then opened fire on the Austrian positions. However, at up to 250 meters above sea level, the coastal batteries were too high for the Italian guns from their ships. Consequently, after a few hours of useless shelling, Vacca decided to sail to Manego and support Rear Admiral Albini. Albini, who had been ordered to destroy the batteries of Nadpostranje (=Podstražje) and land troops in the bay of Rukavac, reached his position at around 11:15.
Shortly afterwards, the Austrian cannons opened fire on the approaching Italians. Albini was faced with the same problem as Rear Admiral Vacca and also decided to cease firing. Albini then sent the corvette San Giovanni to San Giorgio to ask Persano for further orders. After Vacca had reached Manego at around 14:00, Albini informed him of the situation, whereupon Vacca decided to continue on to San Giorgio. Meanwhile, Admiral Persano had approached San Giorgio from the north and Captain Riboty from the south. While Persano intended to attack Fort George, Riboty was to attack Fort Wellington.
After most of Fort George’s guns had been silenced by 3 p.m., Persano ordered the Maria Pia and the San Martino to enter the harbor at 4 p.m. and destroy the inner gun batteries. As the two Italian ships entered the harbor, they came under fire from both the eastern guns of Fort Wellington and the inner gun batteries. In the meantime, Rear Admiral Vacca had appeared at about 16:45 and had received immediate orders to support Riboty in his attack on Fort Wellington.
By 17:00, Fort George had ceased firing after half of its guns had been destroyed and a fifth of its soldiers had fallen. Only Fort Wellington was still resisting. In this situation, Persano decided to break off the battle and allow his men to rest. During the night of July 19, Persano received word that Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had been informed of the attack. However, Admiral Persano decided to continue the attack, as he expected that if Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had indeed sailed, he would not arrive before the evening of July 19. Throughout the night, the Austrians worked to repair the damage caused by the Italians and restore their defensive capabilities.
At dawn, the Affondatore arrived with the frigates Carlo Alberto and Principe Umber, bringing a further 2,600 men with them. The two ships Terribile and Varese were ordered to attack Comisa (=Komiža), while Albini was to cover the disembarkation of the troops. At the same time, the Formidabile, supported by the three ships from Vacca, was to enter the harbor of San Giorgio (= Vis), while Persano himself wanted to attack the outer fortresses again. The Austrian fortifications again withstood the bombardment and the Italian division commanders proved too timid to land the troops.
At 20:00, the Italian fleet had once again broken off the attack and retreated eight nautical miles north of San Georgio. After receiving further telegrams from Lesina (= Hvar) about the presence and activities of the Italian fleet, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff decided to immediately leave his safe position in the northern Adriatic with his escadre (= larger tactical unit of warships under the command of a flag officer) in order to relieve the hard-pressed garrison on Lissa.

The entire Austrian fleet, three divisions, left the Fasana Channel at around 13:30 on July 19 and headed south at full steam. Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had formulated his instructions for the attack precisely. The Panzerschiff-Abteilung was to break through the Italian line, ram their ships and concentrate their fire. The wooden ships were to attack one or other wing of the enemy line or be deployed as they saw fit. The gunboats were to divide into three groups and support the wooden ships in their action.
At 06:40 on the morning of July 20, 1866, the Italians were sighted. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., the order was given to “prepare for battle”. This was followed by the signals “close up” and “full speed” and finally at 10:35 a.m. to the armored ships: “attack and sink the enemy”. After the Italians had sighted the Austrians, Persano gave a number of signals. First he ordered the Terribile and the Varese to join him, then he had his own ships and those of Vacca line up in a dwarf line (= tactical formation of warships) in a north-westerly direction. He gave Albini the signal to leave the boats and men ashore and at the same time ordered him to position his wooden ships behind the armored line. When he realized a few minutes later that his line was pointing in the wrong direction, Persano gave the signals: “Steer northeast for one minute”, then “Close up” and “Attack the enemy”. The armored ships were very slow to reach their positions and the Re di Portogallo and Castelfidardo reported defects in their engines. After some repairs, they finally took their places.
The Formidabile immediately steamed off to Ancona after signaling to Persano that he could not fight. Shortly after the Italians had formed up, Persano changed his mind and ordered a keel line formation (= tactical formation of warships) to be formed. First came the Carignano, then the Castelfidardo and the Ancona, which formed the vanguard. They were followed by the Re d’Italia, the Affondatore, the Palestro, the San Martino in the middle and the Ribotti, the Re di Portogallo and the Maria Pia in the rear. The Terribile and the Varese were still several nautical miles away to the south, so that the entire line covered a space of thirteen nautical miles (24 km).
Around 10:00 a.m. Persano decided that he needed a fast, maneuverable ship to monitor the fighting outside the battle line. Since the Re d’Italia was neither fast nor maneuverable, he decided to switch to the Affondatore. Unfortunately, the Affondatore only had a vice admiral’s flag, but no admiral’s flag, and no signal was sent to the rest of the fleet to announce this change. The other ships receive orders exclusively by signals from the ship with the admiral’s flag. Not from the ship flying the vice admiral’s flag! The stopping of the Re d’Italia also created a significant gap in the line of Italian armored ships. The Italian armored line was therefore only closed at the top. In the center, the Re d’Italia was isolated, and at the end the distances between the ships were much greater than they should have been according to the order. Wilhelm von Tegetthoff recognized his chance and broke through the enemy line between the Re d’Italia and the Ancona at 10:50. The Austrians exchanged fire with Vacca’s division, but the Italian shells missed the Austrian ships due to the heavy swell. Whether because of the smoke from their own guns or because the Italians had maneuvered well, the Austrians were unable to ram any Italian ships during this first attack. After the Austrians had passed the gap, Vacca had broken off to port with his three ships to attack the weaker Austrian rearguard. However, he executed the movement very slowly, so that the rearguard had pushed through the gap before Vacca had completed his turn. Led by the Kaiser, the Novara, the Friedrich Max, the Radetzky, the Adriatic, the Schwarzenberg and the Danube now headed south to attack the Italian wooden ships. The Kaiser was initially confronted by the Affondatore, which opened fire on the Kaiser, killing six men and causing minor damage. The Kaiser returned fire and after the other Austrian ships also concentrated their fire on the Affondatore, the ship withdrew to the west.
Shortly afterwards, Ribotti’s division, reinforced by the Varese, opened fire on the Kaiser. The Portogallo then came into view off the port bow and Commodore Petz, despite his wooden ship, was determined to ram it. Petz dropped slightly to starboard and with a sharp turn to port he managed to hit his opponent abeam. The Kaiser grazed along the side of the Portogallo, shattering part of its armor, the crane beams, tearing in two all the port side port portlights and the shrouds of the foremast. The Kaiser itself suffered equally severe damage. The bowsprit and the stay were torn away and the foremast crashed over the side onto the funnel. Despite her condition and the Italian gunfire, the Kaiser was able to fire at least two concentrated broadsides at close range, causing so much damage above and below the waterline that the Portogallo drifted away and was lost in the smoke of battle. In the meantime, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff had attacked Persano‘s division.
The entire seven Austrian armored ships had concentrated on the Re d’Italia, the Palestro and the San Martino. The battle had now developed into a dense melee that allowed each combatant only a brief glimpse of the other. The Austrian ships were painted black, while the Italians were painted light gray. In addition, the Austrians had painted the funnels of the ships different colors so that they could easily identify their own armored ships. Tegetthoff’s order was clear: “Ram everything that is gray!”. The hard-pressed Italian center was now attacked from the front, flanks and rear. The Palestro and the San Martino were covered with massive gunfire, whereupon they withdrew to the north and southwest respectively after several hits. While the Kaiser, badly battered, with her rigging on fire and many gunners killed or wounded, continued on her way, the Affondatore emerged from the smoke, steaming on a course that crossed that of the Kaiser at right angles. The Affondatore approached as if to ram the ship. When the collision was imminent, Persano suddenly gave the order to take evasive action and spare the ship. Perhaps he feared that his ramming spike would get caught in the hull of the Kaiser and his own ship would go down with the enemy. Meanwhile, the battle reached its climax.
As the Austrians approached the now encircled Re d ‘Italia, a ship actually hit her sternpost and tore away her rudder, rendering her virtually helpless. In this extremely critical situation, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff ordered the Ferdinand Max to ram the ship at full speed. The Re d Italia heeled heavily to starboard when she was hit. The ship immediately began to fill up and sank within just three minutes. While Wilhelm von Tegetthoff tried to launch some boats to save the Italians, the ships of the fore and afterguard arrived, whereupon von Tegetthoff withdrew. The loss of the Re d’Italia and the withdrawal of the Palestro reduced the Italian armored squadron to nine ships.
Nevertheless, Persano was determined to continue the fighting. The Ancona and the Varese were preparing for a new attack on Petz’s division when they collided and remained wedged together for several minutes. During these minutes, the Austrians were able to gain an advantage and escape. The losses aboard the Kaiser were heavy. One of the Affondatore’s 300-pound shells had hit the hull of the ship, killing or wounding twenty men. In total, she had suffered twenty-four dead and seventy-five wounded. But the Kaiser was not yet safe. The Maria Pia had now appeared and opened fire from a distance of 800 meters. The Kaiser tried to return fire, but many of the guns were disabled, while the fire spread through the rigging to the entire ship. The steam ran out and the steering gear was damaged. The other wooden ships were also badly damaged. One ship was only kept afloat by the pumps, another was on fire, and the crew of the guns on another was decimated. Petz withdrew his division from the operation and headed for San Georgio (= Vis).
Nevertheless, the Kaiser had proved that even a wooden ship can attack an armored ship and escape destruction. By 12:20 the two fleets had separated and the Austrian ironclads moved towards San Georgio (= Vis) in support of their unarmored ships. After his fleet had regrouped, the Austrian admiral formed them into three columns in a north-easterly direction, between the Italian armored ships and the land, his own armored ship column seaward. In the meantime, when the gun smoke had cleared, Persano saw that Albini’s division was still on the coast, while his armored ships were in column to the west. Persano then gave the signal for general pursuit. However, as his captains did not know that Persano was on the Affondatore, they paid no attention to the signals. Persano was now obviously losing track of the battle, as he repeatedly sent out contradictory flag signals such as: The fleet is to chase the enemy. The commander wants the orders given to be carried out quickly, any ship that is not fighting is not at its post. Then he learned by signals that the Re d’Italia had sunk, the Palestro was doomed by fire and the San Martino was almost incapable of fighting. Together with his wooden ships and the Terrible, Persano put his column in the lead and steamed west. The two fleets watched each other until nightfall, with the Italians zigzagging but keeping a respectful distance from Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. At dusk, Persano set course for Ancona and von Tegetthoff for Pola (= Pula).

Aftermath
That same evening, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff sent a telegram to Vienna: Enemy fleet encountered off Lissa this morning. After a two-hour battle, the enemy has been driven off, Lissa has been destroyed. Decisive for the Italian defeat were the scattered starting positions of their ships during the landing operations, the inconsistent conduct of the battle due to disputes and misunderstandings, Persano‘s change of flagship, the resulting gap in their formation and the hesitant counterattack after the Austrians had broken through the gap. The Austrian fleet was able to win this battle because the decisive orders were given without delay, the battle plan was well prepared and thought out and, above all, their crews were excellently trained. A significant part of the success was also made possible by Wilhelm von Tegetthoff‘s decisive and unconventional approach. The Battle of Lissa was the first naval engagement in European war history in which armored ships were used. However, too much attention was paid to ramming tactics in the battle. The Austrians attacked a fleet that was in no way organized and thus offered the best opportunities to use the ramming spur. Nevertheless, they only managed to sink one ship with this weapon. With the development of even more powerful and long-range cannons that could sink ships while they were still approaching the enemy for ramming, this tactic soon proved to be obsolete.

Although the Italians had more and better ships than the Austrians, they were unable to use this to their advantage. The defeat was a national tragedy for Italy. Admiral Persano was relieved of his duties and dishonorably discharged from naval service. Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, on the other hand, was promoted to Vice Admiral by Emperor Franz Joseph for his efforts – virtually on the battlefield. Only a short time later, he was also awarded the Order of Maria Theresa with the Commander’s Clasp. He was declared an honorary citizen of Vienna and numerous other cities in the monarchy. He also received an effusive letter of congratulations from his former superior, Ferdinand Maximilian, who was now Emperor of Mexico. The postmaster of Lesina (= Hvar), “Bräuer”, was also awarded a medal for his services. The priest “Planćić” received a valuable monstrance (= liturgical vessel) for his church.

Losses
The Italians recorded 700 dead and wounded as well as 19 prisoners. The Austrians suffered a total of 176 wounded and dead. Some foreign newspapers falsely reported that the liner SMS Kaiser had also been sunk. Several armored ships of both parties were slightly damaged. The badly damaged Affondatore sank off Ancona three days later.

Commemoration
In the Naval Hall of the Museum of Military History in Vienna, the naval battle of Lissa is documented in detail by means of ship models, including two of the SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, numerous paintings, photographs and memorabilia.
In 1866, Lissagasse in Vienna-Landstrasse (3rd district) was named after the naval battle of Lissa.
A cross street of Lazarettgasse in the Gries district of Graz, Lissagasse, also commemorates this memorable event in Austrian military history.
In Vienna, a memorial ceremony is held annually around July 20 at the Reichsbrücke in honor of those who died in the naval battle, at which high-ranking officers of the Austrian army are always present.