She carried her main battery—composed of sixteen 48-pounder guns and fifteen 24-pounders—in a traditional broadside arrangement, protected by an armored belt that was 110 mm (4.3 in) thick.

She engaged the Italian coastal defense ship Palestro, which later exploded and sank after sustaining heavy Austrian fire.

Kaiser Max emerged from the battle largely unscathed, save for minor damage to her funnel and rigging inflicted by the armored frigate Re d'Italia.

After the war, Kaiser Max was modernized slightly in 1867 to correct her poor seakeeping and improve her armament, but she was nevertheless rapidly outpaced by naval developments in the 1860s and 1870s.

[2] Kaiser Max was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) shipyard; her keel was laid down in October 1861,[2] and her completed hull was launched on 14 May 1862.

Tegetthoff received a series of telegrams between the 17 and 19 July notifying him of the Italian attack, which he initially believed to be a feint to draw the Austrian fleet away from its main base at Pola and Venice.

He made a pass through the gap, but failed to ram any of the Italian ships, forcing him to turn around and make another attempt.

The Austrian ironclad Don Juan d'Austria then became surrounded by Italian ships, prompting Kaiser Max to come to her rescue.

[10] Around this time, Persano broke off the engagement, and though his ships still outnumbered the Austrians, he refused to counter-attack with his badly demoralized forces.

Kaiser Max had emerged from the battle essentially undamaged, the Italian shells having been unable to penetrate her armor.

The Italian ships never came, and on 12 August, the two countries signed the Armistice of Cormons; this ended the fighting and led to the Treaty of Vienna.

[12] The fleet embarked on a modest modernization program after the war, primarily focused on re-arming the ironclads with new rifled guns.

Reconstruction projects were routinely approved by the parliament, so the navy officially "rebuilt" Kaiser Max and her sister ships.