The times., 1899-08-27
TEGETHoFF AT LIsSA.
A War Commander Fit to Stand Be-
side Farragut.
(From the Chicago Tribune. }


A War Commander Fit to Stand Be.
side Farragut.
(From the Chicago Tribune.)
Dewey's reasons for going to Trieste may
easily have been sentimental ones, and ev-
| cry formal gun he fired in answer to the
peaceful cannonade at the Dalmation sea-
| port salute to the memory of the one
pre- eminent naval hero of a country al
most altogether inland-Admiral Tegethoff
| the man whom the foremost writing au-
| thority upon modern naval warfare exalts
as Standing forth in the long period from
Trafalgar as the one war commander who
can be matched with Farragut."
This man who fought and won against
odds the first naval battle ON any sea in
which ironclads were engaged in squadron
on both sides died in his pride long ago.
and the name even of the battle of Lissa
IS forgotten except by those who make a
study of naval history
But an imperial order provides that so
long as the Austrian Empire endures an
Austrian battleship shall bear his name,
and Admiral Dewey, the next man since
Farragut who damned the torpedoes and
went ahead, when he rounded the Brindisi
Heel of Italy and sailed up the Adriatic to
Trieste. sailed through the waters where
Tegethoff won his fame, and exchanged
signals with the batteries OF the great Aus
trian port just one day too late to have
his salutes count in the celebration of tne
thirty-third anniversary of the LISA fight.
Maybe, rs like as not, that was small
piece of Dewey diplomacy rather than an
accident TO the shaft of the Olympia-in
view of his subsequent visits TO italian
ports. tsN7
For in that all but forgotten fight of the
war of 1866, the true benchtnark of mod
ern naval history, the Italians were un-
expectedly beaten, contrary to all the pre-
dictions OF the naval experts. and with all
the odds of ships, armor guns and mod
ernness of material in their favor. 1t was
more than a defeat. 1t was national
humiliation. And the young b:ood of new
national life was just then flowing strong
in united Italy. ~
IL was quick to catch the infect on from
the fight of the Monitor and the Meriimac,
and, after going into debt to the amount
OF over $50, COOS 600 for naval expenditures.
had navy in 1866 which measured quite
even with those of France England and
the United States, then the foremost naval
powers in the world. Her best two ships
the Re d'Italia and the Re- df Portogaflo.
had been built at Webb's shpyard. New
York. at cost of over Sf,60O,OOO each.
They carried 7inch armor and a formida-
bic armament for their time; the first
named two 150-pounders, with thirty g.
inch guns and four smooth bores: the sec
ond two 300-pounders and twenty-six e.
inch guns. They had the Affondatore. a
turret ram. built in England, armed with
two 300-pounders as her main battery and
a 26-foot ram, supposed to embody all that
lad been learned in our Civil War They
mad other ironclad vessels besides and al
together went into the fight off LISA with
an advantage of 276 rihed guns. again st
III, so largely superior in size that they
were able to fire weight OF metal four
times that discharged by the Austrians.
The Austrian fleet was in a state of un-
preparedness, but Tegethoff was Nelson.
The Krupp guns of his flagship were de-
tanned in Germany by reason of the hos
tllities between Austria and Prussia and
he filled their places with smooth bores.
Another of his largest vessels lacked her
bow armor, and he put on heavy thick
ness of planking. With odds of almost
two to one against him from every theoret-
ical point of view he sailed out of Trieste
and sought the enemy, as Dewey did when
he sailed into Manila Bay, and, once more.
as it was in Mobile Bay and at Manila and
off Santiago. and as it had been at Ira
falgar, the battle and the victory were to
the men behind the guns and the brains
behind the men.
The battle of LISA was almost Homeric
in some of its characteristics The Italian
vessels were painted grey, and Ram
everything grey, was Tegethoffs last sig
nal TO his feet. He formed his fleet in
wedge shape, with his flagship at the
point, and when he rammed the Re d'Italia
only l50 were saved of its crew of 400
1t is related in the official report of the
commanding Italian admiral, Persano that
its captain, Faa di Bruno, when he saw
that his ship was lost, with the words,
The captain must die with his ship"
blew out his brains with his revolver
1t is of record even in the Austrian re-
ports that in the brief time when the Re
d Italia was yisibly lurching before its final
plunge, an Italian marine nailed her colors
last. so that they should not be a trophy
Of the enemy. When the Italian ship Pa
lestro was set on fire by the Austrian shells
and the fire was approaching its magazine
It's captain, Capellini, refused to leave his
quarter deck, saying:
Whoever likes can CO. but, as for me,
stay"
And his officers and crew followed his
brave example, cheering their country and
their King.
There were 2S0 officers and men aboard
The Palestro, and only nineteen, of whom
only one was an officer, were picked up
after the explosion.
This is not Casabianco poetry. II is
history, and it may suggest one reason why
Dewey made the port of Trieste Just in
line TO do honor TO the greatest Austrian |
naval hero without offending the sensibili-
les OF country which would be his nat
lral next stopping place