twenty-four men killed, and seventy-five — amongst whom was the commodore — wounded. The "Novara" had seven, including her captain, killed, and twenty wounded. The rest of the division had in all but three killed and nine wounded. But the "Kaiser" was disabled; her engineer reported that he could not keep up steam; and she made her way with difficulty, though unopposed, into San Giorgio.
The crisis of the fight was, however, farther north, amongst the ironclads. The three leading ships, forming Vacca's division, had encircled the rear of the Austrian small craft, but too slowly to inclose them or even to do them any harm. The three sternmost ships under Ribotty, as well as the "Affondatore," were engaged with the "Kaiser" and her consorts; and the three in the centre — the "Rè d'Italia," "Pa lestro," and "San Martino" — were opposed to the concentrated force of the seven Austrian ironclads. The result of Persano's want of forethought, or of his trust in the inspiration of the moment, was, that with a fleet of twelve ironclad ships against seven, the actual condition of the fight was that three were opposed to the seven, and were beaten by them.
This is the one great tactical lesson which the action seems to me to convey. Captain Colomb has spoken of the result of the first charge of the Austrian ironclads as the dividing of the Italian line. In this I am compelled to differ from him. The Italian line was divided before the charge quite as much as after; and no part of it was really cut off by the mere passing through a very wide gap. The resulting break was, in fact, rather in the Austrian fleet, whose wooden division was exposed to a concentrated attack from Vacca, Ribotty, and Albini, which must have been overwhelming had these been men of energy and decision, had there been between them a fixedness and unanimity of purpose; and which, even as it was, might well have been fatal.
Of this Tegetthoff seems to have been quickly aware. The ironclads were turned, as soon as the threatened attack could be seen; the signal was to support the second division; and with that they charged back again. For,a few minutes the centre of the battle was enveloped in smoke. When it cleared away the fight was virtually at an end.
The Austrian ironclads were painted black, but their funnels were all differently colored, so that a glimpse through the smoke was sufficient to identify the ship. Between the Italians there was no such difference; they were all painted grey, and, under the circumstances, were undistinguishable from each other. There was thus no choice of an enemy, and once again in the smoke, Tegetthoff's order was simple: "Ram everything grey!" Backwards and forwards, it is impossible to say how often, the ships passed: the "Don Juan" and the "Kaiser Max" hunted the "San Martino;" the "Prinz Eugen," "Salamander" and "Drache"took the pressure off the "Kaiser" and "Novara," and engaged the rear division. Moll, the captain of the "Drache," was killed; and for a few minutes the command devolved on a young ensign, Weyprecht, who has since won European fame as the commander of the Arctic discovery ship "Tegetthoff." Twice, in the smoke, the "Ferdinand Max" rammed a grey »mass, but inefficiently; the angle of impact was too oblique. A shell from one of her forty-eight-pounders, a smooth, round, old-fashioned shell, burst in the "Palestro's" ward-room, and set her on fire. Suddenly, through the smoke, a stationary grey mass was dimly seen. Tegetthoff pointed her out to his flag-captain, Baron von Sterneck. The engine-room telegraph carried down the order: "Full speed ahead!" The "Max" started forward and struck the grey mass — an enemy's ship — abreast the foremast, on the port-side. It rolled to starboard through an angle roughly estimated at 450; then, as the "Max" backed out of the hole she had made, it rolled heavily to port, showing the deck and the terror-stricken crowd on it to the appalled conquerors, and sank. At such a moment, seconds are as years; but it is believed that between the blow and the disappearance the time did not exceed two minutes; it was twenty minutes past eleven;[1] thirty-seven minutes since the first shot had been fired.
The "Elizabeth," a paddlewheel despatch boat which had followed Tegetthoff into the thick of the fight, was ordered to pick up as many of the drowning men as she could; but the Italian ships, knowing nothing of what had happened, presently drove her away. She was struck four times, had one man killed and four wounded; and was compelled to look out for her own safety. It was then, and only then, known from the prisoners that the sunken ship was the "Rè d'Italia." Amongst the few picked up by the boats of one of the Italian ships was the com-
- ↑ The time of the "Kaiser's" ineffectually ramming the "Rè di Portogallo" is given as 11h. 17m. The two were thus almost simultaneous.
