Persano, regarding his wooden ships as useless, had decided to take only his ten ironclads with him, believing that they would be able to deal with the seven which Tegethoff was bringing against him. He formed his ironclads in three divisions, each of three ships, with the turret ship and ram _Affondatore_, then the most powerful vessel in the Adriatic,[3] on the starboard side of the central division. The _Affondatore_, with her ram and her heavy turret guns (two 300-pounders), was to come to the help of whichever of the three divisions was in need of succour. At the last moment he himself went on board of her--an unfortunate move, which led to much confusion during the battle, as his captains were mostly unaware that the _Ré d’Italia_, a large broadside ship, which had till then been flagship, no longer carried the Admiral. When the haze cleared, the Italian fleet was steaming across the Austrian front. Tegethoff had already signalled to clear for action. He now signalled to open fire with the bow guns, and the distant shots from the leading Austrian ships were answered by the broadsides of Admiral Vacca’s division, which led that of Italy. But the range was fully two miles, and these “long bowls” did no harm. The fleets were wrapped in drifting clouds of smoke, and geysers of foam shot up here and there from the blue water in the space between. “Full steam ahead,” signalled Tegethoff. The fleets were closing, the Italians still keeping their broadsides to the advancing foe. The fire was closer, and now spars and ropes were cut away, boats and wooden fittings were knocked to splinters, and signalmen and others who had not yet got under cover were wounded or killed by bursting shells. “_Ironclads will ram and sink the enemy_,” signalled Tegethoff, the last order he gave till the battle was won. From this point he kept on the bridge of the _Ferdinand Max_, regardless of personal danger, and led his fleet by showing his consorts what a well-handled battle-ship could do. Two of his captains, Molb of the ironclad _Drache_, and Klint of the _Novara_, were killed as the fleets came to close quarters, Molb being struck down by the first Italian shot that fell on board his ship. [Illustration: “THE RAM CRUSHED IN HER IRON SIDE.”]