The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy , so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram them . The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line , charging at the Italian ironclad squadron . In the melée which followed both sides were frustrated by the lack of damage inflicted by guns , and by the difficulty of ramming — nonetheless , the effective ramming attack being made by the Austrian flagship against the Italian attracted great attention in following years .