 At the time of her design it was thought that ramming attacks were the most effective offensive manoeuvre against armoured warships, as the armour of the period was, for a short time, able to defend against the majority of contemporary guns extant.This belief was reinforced by the action at the battle of Lissa, when the Austrian battleship "Ferdinand Max" rammed and sank the Italian "Re DItalia".The Italian ship was at the time a stationary target, a detail which it appears did not receive, in naval architects' minds, the attention it deserved.