everything was in the rough — the ships, as I have just said, very much so; the masts and rigging, the fittings and the guns, such as could be got most readily and most quickly. "Only send them," wrote Tegetthoff — "send them as they are; I'll find some use for them."
The men were almost all newly raised; their gun-drill went on all day and every day; they were exercised more especially in firing concentrated broadsides — that is, in laying the guns by marks on the ships' decks, so as all to converge to a focus, and firing them as one, at the word. Above all, the several captains were fully in the admiral's confidence. Promoted as he had been, for actual service without reference to seniority, Tegetthoff was probably junior to many of those under his command. Possibly he felt this might be a difficulty in his way. It does not appear to have been so; the hopes and fears, and plans and strategy and tactics of the campaign before them seem to have been discussed in friendly conclave, of which Tegetthoff was the president and the soul. He imbued them with his fiery spirit. The wooden ships might be roughly armored with ranges of chain-cable fastened on abreast of the boilers: it would give the stokers some sense of protection. The guns were weak: they must be supplemented by the ships themselves; if a forty-eight-pound shot would not pierce the enemy's plates, a five-thousand-ton ship might. Hence the determination to use the ships freely as rams. To fire by concentrated broadsides and to ram — these were the elements of the tactics, the details of which were discussed in all their probable bearings. When the day came that saw them face to face with the enemy, every captain knew the admiral's intention as well as the admiral himself did; every officer knew what had to be done, and every man had some idea of it, and above all knew that he had to fight.
The Italian navy was on a widely different footing from the Austrian. From the birth of the kingdom, six years before, the fixed idea of the Italians had been to have a navy. They aimed at being a great naval power; and by a liberal expenditure, had got together a number of ships that could compare even with the fleets of England or France. They were able to collect at Ancona a force of twelve armor-plated ships, besides a large number of powerful wooden frigates and smaller craft.
Of their armored ships, most had been built abroad; the two largest, the "Rè d'Italia" and the "Rè di Portogallo," in America. These were wooden ships, of five thousand seven hundred tons displacement; they were armored with five-and-one-half-inch plates, had engines of eight hundred horse-power, and could steam at from twelve to thirteen knots. Some controversy arose afterwards as to whether their construction was as good as it was believed to be; they were said to be unsound, built of green wood, and incurably foul from the filth that had been thrown down the lining, and so built into them. I find no mention of all this on the part of the Italians, and believe that it was merely a trade report, raised by rival builders eager for a contract. But in any case, though such defects, if they existed, would have rendered the ships unserviceable as cruisers or for a prolonged campaign, they could have no influence on a campaign which lasted for barely a week. Their armament consisted of two three hundred-pounder Armstrong guns, ten smooth-bore ten-inch guns, and twenty-four rifled guns throwing a shot of ninety pounds. If we remember what our own navy was in 1866, we shall see that the "Bellerophon" was the only ship we had then afloat, which, as an effective man-of-war, could be said to be decidedly superior to these. Our ships of the "Prince Consort" class, though a little bigger, had thinner armor, and had no rifled guns; no more had the "Achilles," whose extreme length would have made her compare unfavorably, as a tactical engine, with either of these two Italians.
Two others, the "Terribile" and "For-midabile," had been built in France; these were iron ships of two thousand seven hundred tons, with four-and-one-half-inch plates over fourteen inches, of backing — they had ram bows, then still a novelty, and were said to have a speed of twelve knots. Of the others, I will only mention in detail the "Affondatore," a turret ship, built in England; she was of four thousand tons, and seven hundred horse-power; she had a spur thirty feet long; and though she had only two guns they were three-hundred-pounder Armstrongs. Besides these, there were five others of about four thousand tons; and two smaller, of two thousand tons, the "Palestro" and "Varese," which were only partially plated, their bows and sterns being left unarmored. These ships were all armed with rifled guns, principally of cast iron with strengthening coils, which threw a ninety-pound shot. In mere material force, the Italian fleet was at least
