text: sms juan de austria sms juan de austria was the third member of the kaiser max class built for the austrian navy in the 1860s . her keel was laid in october 1861 at the stabilimento tecnico triestino shipyard ; she was launched in july 1862 , and was completed in 1863 . she carried her main battery — composed of sixteen 48 - pounder guns and fifteen 24 - pounders — in a traditional broadside arrangement , protected by an armored belt that was 110 mm ( 4 . 3 in ) thick . juan de austria saw action at the battle of lissa in july 1866 . there she was heavily engaged in the center of the melee ; she traded broadsides with the italian ironclad re di portogallo and was hit three times by the turret ship affondatore , though she received little damage . after the war , juan de austria was modernized slightly in 1867 to correct her poor seakeeping and improve her armament , but she was nevertheless rapidly outpaced by naval developments in the 1860s and 1870s . obsolescent by 1873 , juan de austria was officially " rebuilt " , though in actuality she was broken up for scrap , with only her armor plate , parts of her machinery , and other miscellaneous parts being reused in the new don juan d 'austria . design juan de austria was 70 . 78 meters ( 232 ft 3 in ) long between perpendiculars ; she had a beam of 10 m ( 32 ft 10 in ) and an average draft of 6 . 32 m ( 20 ft 9 in ) . she displaced 3 , 588 metric tons ( 3 , 531 long tons ; 3 , 955 short tons ) . she had a crew of 386 . her propulsion system consisted of one single - expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller . the number and type of her coal - fired boilers have not survived . her engine produced a top speed of 11 knots ( 20 km / h ; 13 mph ) from 1 , 900 indicated horsepower ( 1 , 400 kw ) . she could steam for about 1 , 200 nautical miles ( 2 , 200 km ; 1 , 400 mi ) at a speed of 10 knots ( 19 km / h ; 12 mph ) . juan de austria was a broadside ironclad , and she was armed with a main battery of sixteen 48 - pounder muzzle - loading guns and fifteen 24 - pounder 15 cm ( 5 . 9 in ) rifled muzzle - loading guns . she also carried a single 12 - pounder gun and a six - pounder . the sides of ship 's hull were sheathed with wrought iron armor that was 110 mm ( 4 in ) thick and extended from bow to stern . service history juan de austria was built by the stabilimento tecnico triestino ( stt ) shipyard . she was laid down in october 1861 , and her completed hull was launched on 26 july 1862 . fitting - out work was completed the following year and she was commissioned into the austrian fleet . she proved to be very wet forward , owing to her open bow , and as a result , tended to handle poorly . in june 1866 , italy declared war on austria , as part of the third italian war of independence , which was fought concurrently with the austro - prussian war . rear admiral wilhelm von tegetthoff brought the austrian fleet to ancona on 27 june , in an attempt to draw out the italians , but the italian commander , admiral carlo pellion di persano , refused to engage tegetthoff . battle of lissa on 16 july , persano took the italian fleet , with twelve ironclads , out of ancona , bound for the island of lissa , where they arrived on the 18th . with them , they brought troop transports carrying 3 , 000 soldiers . persano then spent the next two days bombarding the austrian defenses of the island and unsuccessfully attempting to force a landing . tegetthoff received a series of telegrams between 17 and 19 july notifying him of the italian attack , which he initially believed to be a feint to draw the austrian fleet away from its main bases at pola and venice . by the morning of the 19th , however , he was convinced that lissa was in fact the italian objective , and so he requested permission to attack . as tegetthoff 's fleet arrived off lissa on the morning of 20 july , persano 's fleet was arrayed for another landing attempt . the latter 's ships were divided into three groups , with only the first two able to concentrate in time to meet the austrians . tegetthoff had arranged his ironclad ships into a wedge - shaped formation , with juan de austria on his right flank ; the wooden warships of the second and third divisions followed behind in the same formation . while he was forming up his ships , persano transferred from his flagship , re d 'italia , to the turret ship affondatore . this created a gap in the italian line , and tegetthoff seized the opportunity to divide the italian fleet and create a melee . he made a pass through the gap , but failed to ram any of the italian ships , forcing him to turn around and make another attempt . juan of austria initially attempted to follow tegetthoff 's flagship , erzherzog ferdinand max , but quickly lost contact with her in the ensuing melee . juan of austria became surrounded by italian vessels , prompting her sister kaiser max to come to her aid . juan of austria thereafter engaged re di portogallo for around half an hour before shifting targets back to affondatore . the latter scored three hits on juan of austria 's unarmored bow , but they caused little damage . the first passed directly through the ship without exploding , the second struck the belt armor and failed to penetrate , and the third hit her quarter deck . by this time , re d 'italia had been rammed and sunk and the coastal defense ship palestro was burning badly , soon to be destroyed by a magazine explosion . persano broke off the engagement , and though his ships still outnumbered the austrians , he refused to counter - attack with his badly demoralized forces . in addition , the fleet was low on coal and ammunition . the italian fleet began to withdraw , followed by the austrians ; tegetthoff , having gotten the better of the action , kept his distance so as not to risk his success . as night began to fall , the opposing fleets disengaged completely , heading for ancona and pola , respectively . later career after returning to pola , tegetthoff kept his fleet in the northern adriatic , where it patrolled against a possible italian attack . the italian ships never came , and on 12 august , the two countries signed the armistice of cormons ; this ended the fighting and led to the treaty of vienna . though austria had defeated italy at lissa and on land at the battle of custoza , the austrian army was decisively defeated by prussia at the battle of königgrätz . as a result , austria , which became austria - hungary in the ausgleich of 1867 , was forced to cede the city of venice to italy . juan de austria was rebuilt in 1867 , particularly to correct her poor sea - keeping . her open bow was plated over and she was rearmed with twelve 7 - inch ( 178 mm ) muzzle - loaders manufactured by armstrong and two 3 - inch ( 76 mm ) 4 - pounder guns . by 1873 , the ship was obsolescent and had a thoroughly - rotted hull , so the austro - hungarian navy decided to replace the ship . parliamentary objection to granting funds for new ships forced the navy to resort to subterfuge to replace the ship . reconstruction projects were routinely approved by the parliament , so the navy officially " rebuilt " juan de austria and her sister ships . in reality , only some parts of the engines , armor plate , and other miscellaneous parts were salvaged from the ships . juan de austria was dismantled at the stt shipyard beginning in december 1878 . the new ironclads were given the same names of the old vessels in an attempt to conceal the deception .