Danes, meanwhile, after lying-to for some time, repairing damages, had gone north. They had suffered heavily, and were in no condition to keep up a blockade of Heligoland, so that the Austrians, getting under way, crossed over, unhindered, to Cuxhaven, where they anchored early the next morning.
Independent of the damage done to the ships — and the "Schwarzenberg" was certainly incapable of any prolonged defence — the loss in men stands thus: Danes, fourteen killed, fifty-four wounded. Austrians, thirty-six killed, fifty-two badly wounded, and a great many slightly; of which total quite six-sevenths fell on the "Schwarzenberg." But the blockade was raised: the Austrians had met the Danes with a weaker force and had not been crushed. The convenient neighborhood of neutral water was not put too prominently forward, and the Germans claimed an effective victory, as, in fact, it strategically was, for the Danish operations on the coast were perforce ended. The Austrian emperor acknowledged Tegetthoff's telegraphic message by one promoting him to the rank of rear-admiral, and conferring on him the order of the Iron Crown, with a war decoration. Undoubtedly Tegetthoff deserved well of the allied sovereigns. He had fought a superior enemy, superior both in force and in prestige. He had fought boldly, and though beaten, was still so far successful that the Danish navy had no further influence on the war.
Tegetthoff was now employed for a few months in the war office at Vienna, and in 1865 was again in command of a small squadron in the Mediterranean. With this, in the beginning of 1866, he was recalled to Pola, to take part in the war with Italy, which was finally declared on June 20.
This new war found the Austrian navy in a very unprepared condition. The popular idea seems to have been that the late alliance with Prussia had inaugurated a reign of peace; that there were to be no more wars; and though, as a measure of precaution, an army might be necessary, to spend money on a fleet was downright waste, and, in the impoverished state of the treasury, a thing not to be thought of. Accordingly the ships which were unfinished when the archduke Maximilian went to Mexico, were unfinished still; and what ships there were had been permitted to lie by, waiting till it was convenient to repair them. But though Maximilian was no longer there to direct the work, or to push it forward, when the necessity occurred, the navy still enjoyed the benefit of his rule. He had insisted that the navy should be a national force, that the ships and their engines, as well as their men, should be Austrian. The arsenal at Pola was a reality; and the ships, though unfinished, were in their own hands, to be got ready as soon as possible. The one point in which they had trusted to foreign resources was the only one that utterly failed them. But it was an important one. A number of heavy guns which had been ordered from Krupp's works were stopped by the Prussians, and the want could not now be adequately supplied.
The spirit of the service was, however, excellent. Tegetthoff, with the few ships ready for sea, took up his station at Fasana; and whilst the men — raw recruits most of them — were drilled almost incessantly, the admiral inspired the commanding officers, and through them the seamen, with courage and confidence. Other ships were fitted out, hastily, imperfectly, but still equal to the emergency. The two large ships, armored frigates of the first class, were pushed forward; their spars were not ready, but they were jury-rigged, and sent to Fasana. These were ships which, though somewhat smaller, may, in horse-power and armor, be compared to our "Royal Oak;" wooden ships, with 41-2 inch plating, of eight hundred horse-power, of five thousand one hundred and thirty tons displacement, and, failing the Krupp guns, armed with sixteen smooth-bore forty - eight - pounders. On board one of these, the "Erzherzog Ferdinand Maximilian" — which was shortly called "Ferdinand Max," or, affectiontionately, "Max" — Tegetthoff hoisted his flag. Presently came' the "Kaiser," a ninety-gun ship, similar to those two deckers which, only three or four years before, had formed the bulk of our Mediterranean fleet. Then came the "N ovara," which had narrowly escaped burning at the hands of an incendiary, but which had been repaired as quickly and as well as circumstances permitted; then also the "Don Juan de Austria," meant for an armor-plated ship, but ironclad only at the water line, and the after part; forward, the want of the plates was supplied by wooden planking. By the end of June the admiral had with him, under his immediate orders, the whole of the available force of the Austrian navy: seven ironclad frigates, the ninety-gun ship, two fifty-gun frigates, four smaller, and a number of gun-vessels, gunboats, and fast steamers, including one of the Austrian Lloyd's boats. But
