Truth_from_Georgia Report This Comment
Date: October 04, 2005 01:20PM

Wonderful, until the Austrians come and blow it out of the water with only a kayak as per the general history of the Italian navy.

mkcerusky Report This Comment
Date: October 05, 2005 08:01AM

I guess you don't know anything about the history of the italian navy. And by the way, the boat who is ruling right now is not australian, neither kiwi or american (and neither italian of course), it is swiss, and is called Alinghi.

Truth_from_Georgia Report This Comment
Date: October 05, 2005 06:02PM

Battle of Lissa? (among others)

The Battle of Lissa was a naval battle between Austrian and Italian forces on 20 July, 1866. It took place in the Adriatic Sea near the island of Lissa (now Vis) and was a victory for the outnumbered Austrians. It was the first major sea battle involving ships using iron and steam, and one of the last to involve deliberate ramming.

The fleets were composed by a mix of unarmoured sailing ships with steam engines, and armoured ironclads also combining sails and steam engines. The Italian fleet outnumbered the Austrian fleet. The Italian fleet, under Count Carlo di Persano, comprised 12 iron-clads and 17 unarmoured ships against 7 Austrian iron-clads and 11 unarmoured Austrian ships repectively (under Admiral Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff). A single turret ship took part of the action, the Italian ship Affondatore.

The Italians, despite their superiority, where not prepared for battle. They were busy preparing for landings when the news that the Austrian fleet was at sea and seeking battle reached them. Persano cancelled the landings, ordered the fleet into line abreast and having second thoughts, cancelled that order and ordered the fleet into 3 divisions in a line ahead formation. The same formation that age of sail battles were fought in.

Before the battle Persano caused more confusion by deciding to transfer his flag to the Affondatore and the 2nd and 3rd Divisions slowed to allow Re d'Italia to lower her boats. However the signal to slow down never reached the 1st Division and they continued to steam on, allowing a gap to open in their battleline. To compound the error, Persano never signalled the change of flag and throughout the action the Italians continued to look to the old flag Re d'Italia for orders rather than Affondatore.

Having ignored the warnings of "suspicious ships in sight" from his pickets, Persano had allowed the Austrians to effectively ambush his force while it was still forming. Tegetthoff, seeing the gap opening between the 1st and 2nd Italian Divisions decided to emulate Nelsons tactic at the battle of Trafalgar and force his fleet into the gap and concentrate on raking the Italians and ramming.

By 10.43am the Austrians had bought the Italian van to close action. Habsburg, Salamander and Kaiser Max on the Austrians left wing had engaged the Italian 1st Division, while the right wing of Don Juan, Drache and Prinz Eugen engaged the Italian 2nd Division. Persano, now on the most powerful warship in either fleet, Affondatore, stayed clear of the engagement.

After his encounter with the Re de Portogallo earlier in the battle and having fought his way clear of the Maria Pia, Commodore von Petz's Kaiser found itself at close range with the Italian flagship Affondatore. Despite being a perfect target for a ram, Kaiser survived when Persano ordered Affondatore to turn away.

Among other memorable activities was the time that the Austrian Erzherzog Ferdinand Max limped away, wounded by conducting 3 ramming attacks, the Italian Ancona closed on her attempting to ram. In the excitement the Italian gunners got a full broadside off at point blank range, but while they had remembered the gunpowder, they had forgotten to load the shot.

Kaisers encounter with the Affondatore was the last major action of the battle. With two armoured ships sunk, the Italians withdrew, although there would be some exchange of long range artillery for several hours.
Persano returned and announced a great victory, causing much initial celebration until the real results of the battle were published. He has court marshalled for cowardice and dismissed from the navy.

Tegetthoff returned home a hero, was promoted Vice Admiral, and is considered one of the greatest naval commanders in history.

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