However, the Imperial Austrian Navy managed to secure victory despite the numerical and technical superiority of the Italian fleet by employing ramming tactics.

Both naval forces at Lissa exhibited notable technical deficiencies, while the Italian Navy also suffered from severe rivalries within its command staff and inadequate training of its crews.

In order to seize the last areas of the Apennine Peninsula that were still in the hands of the Habsburg Empire, the then Kingdom of Italy entered into an alliance with Prussia.

Shortly before the Italians were ready to resume the offensive, Napoleon III telegraphed on the night of July 4 that Austria had offered to cede Veneto to him on the basis of an armistice in order to return it to Italy.

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.

[3] After Austria officially declared war on Italy on June 20, the Italians initially planned to occupy the Austrian coastal land on the Adriatic.

After von Tegetthoff was informed of the declaration of war, he immediately took the necessary measures to take offensive action against the enemy fleet when a favorable opportunity arose.

In order to obtain information about the strength and movements of the Italians, von Tegetthoff sent the steamer Stadium on the same day to reconnoitre the coast from Ancona to Bari.

On June 24, von Tegetthoff asked Archduke Albrecht whether he would be permitted to take the offensive and carry out reconnaissance missions on the Italian coast.

The Archduke's reply arrived on June 26 and was as follows: No obstacle in the way of the free action of the escadre, only not beyond Lissa; keep an eye on the mouths of the Po and the coast of Venice.

With the approval of the High Command, von Tegetthoff set sail from Fasana on the evening of June 26 with the armored frigate Archduke Ferdinand Max.

When the Elisabeth had approached the foreign steamer to within about 1.5 nautical miles (1.7 mi), the ship - the Radaviso Esploratore under the command of Marchese di Orengo - hoisted the Italian flag.

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.

[7] Dissatisfied with the state of his fleet, Persano repeatedly pointed out a number of deficiencies to the responsible naval minister, General Diego Angioletti.

In addition, the fleet consisted of the ship-of-the-line Kaiser with ninety-one guns, the frigates Adria, Donau , Novara , Radetzky, and Schwarzenberg, as well as ten gunboats (Narenta, Kerka, Hum, Vellebich, Dalmat, Seehund, Wal, Streiter, Reka, Andreas Hofer, Kaiserin Elisabeth, Greif, and Stadion).

At that time, 1,833 Austrian soldiers 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 639 yd-high hill of Hum, which was in telegraphic contact with the Dalmatian mainland via the neighboring island of Lesina.

The planned attack required the armored division to form the vanguard and to simultaneously adopt a formation that enabled it to steam full speed at the enemy.

Rear Admiral Giovanni Battista Albini’s squadron consisted of four frigates, one corvette, five scouts, three gunboats, a hospital ship, and two troop transports.

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.

The gunboats were sent to Lesina on the island of Hvar to cut the telegraph cable to Lissa and destroy any boats that could transmit information to the mainland.

Albini, who had received orders to destroy the batteries at Nadpostranje and land troops in the bay of Rukavac, reached his position at around 11:15.

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.

At the same time, the Formidabile, supported by the three ships from Vacca, was to enter the port of San Giorgio, while Persano himself wanted to attack the outer fortresses again.

[16] After receiving further telegrams from Lesina about the presence and activities of the Italian fleet, Tegetthoff decided to leave his safe position in the northern Adriatic with his escadre immediately in order to relieve the hard-pressed garrison on Lissa.

The entire Austrian fleet, three divisions, sailed out of the Fažana Channel at around 13:30 on July 19 and headed south at full steam.

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.

Led by the Kaiser, the Novara, the Friedrich Max, the Radetzky, the Adriatic, the Schwarzenberg and the Donau now sailed south to attack the Italian wooden ships.

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 subsequently drifted away and was lost in the smoke of battle.

In this extremely critical situation, von Tegetthoff ordered the Ferdinand Max to ram the ship at full speed.