Italian ironclad Ancona

Map showing the disposition of the fleets on 20 July

On 16 July, Persano took the Italian fleet out of Ancona, bound for Lissa, where they arrived on the 18th. With them, they brought troop transports carrying 3,000 soldiers; the Italian warships began bombarding the Austrian forts on the island, with the intention of landing the soldiers once the fortresses had been silenced. In response, the Austrian Navy sent the fleet under Tegetthoff to attack the Italian ships.[5] Ancona was at that time assigned to the 1st Division, commanded by Admiral Giovanni Vacca, along with the ironclads Castelfidardo and Principe di Carignano, the divisional flagship.[6] After arriving off Lissa on the 18th,[2] Persano ordered the 1st Division to bombard the Austrian fortresses protecting the island, but Vacca informed him that his ships' guns could not elevate high enough to hit the high fortifications. Persano then sent Vacca's division to Vis to force the harbor defenses, but by the time they arrived, night was approaching, and so he cancelled the attack.[7]

The next morning, Persano ordered the ironclad Formidabile to enter the harbor Vis and attack the Madonna battery, supported by Ancona and the rest of the 1st Division. Vacca found it impossible to employ his ships in the confined waters, and so he left Formidabile to handle the battery. With the day's attacks again having yielded no results, Persano decided to make another attempt on the 20th. Vacca would take his three ships to patrol to the north-east of the island while the rest of the fleet would again try to land the soldiers.[8] Before the Italians could begin the attack, the dispatch boat Esploratore arrived, bringing news of Tegetthoff's approach. Persano's fleet was in disarray; Vacca's ships were three miles to the northeast from Persano's main force, and three other ironclads were further away to the west.[9] Persano immediately ordered his ships to form up with Vacca's, first in line abreast formation, and then in line ahead formation. Ancona was the third ship in the Italian line.[10]

Shortly before the action began, Persano left his flagship, Re d'Italia, and transferred to the turret ship Affondatore, though none of his subordinates on the other ships were aware of the change. They there thus left to fight as individuals without direction. More dangerously, by stopping Re d'Italia, he allowed a significant gap to open up between Vacca's three ships and the rest of the fleet.[11] Tegetthoff took his fleet through the gap between Vacca's and Persano's ships, in an attempt to split the Italian line and initiate a melee. He failed to ram any Italian vessels on the first pass, so he turned back toward Persano's ships, and took Re d'Italia, San Martino, and Palestro under heavy fire. Vacca turned his division to port, taking them away from the Austrian ships hammering Persano's division. He briefly attempted to engage the Austrian wooden ships under Anton von Petz in the rear, but was driven off by heavy fire from three steam frigates.[12][13]

By this time, Re d'Italia had been badly damaged, and she attempted to close up with Ancona. While she reversed course to meet Ancona, the ship was rammed and sunk by the Austrian flagship, SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max. Ancona was set on fire by Austrian shells, but her crew quickly put them out. Ancona then rallied with the coastal defense ship Varese to make another attack on von Petz's unarmored ships, but the two Italian vessels collided and became entangled. While their crews worked to free the ships, the Austrians were able to escape.[14] Persano broke off the engagement to consolidate his forces, but his ships, low on coal and ammunition, and with badly demoralized crews, could not be rallied by Persano's half-hearted attempt to launch an attack. The Italian fleet began to withdraw, followed by the Austrians; as night began to fall, the opposing fleets disengaged completely, heading for Ancona and Pola, respectively.[15] In the course of the battle, Ancona had been hit many times, with several of her iron plates having been dislodged. An Austrian shell managed to enter one of her gun ports and explode inside.[16]

After the battle, Vacca replaced Persano; he was ordered to attack the main Austrian naval base at Pola, but the war ended before the operation could be carried out.[17]

For the rest of her long career, Ancona served in a variety of roles, both in the main fleet and in Italy's colonial empire.[18] After the end of the war, the government lost confidence in the fleet and drastically reduced the naval budget. The cuts were so severe that the fleet had great difficulty in mobilizing its ironclad squadron to attack the port of Civitavecchia in September 1870, as part of the wars of Italian unification. Instead, the ships were laid up and the sailors conscripted to man them were sent home.[19] Some time after 1866, the ship was rebuilt as a central battery ship, with most of her guns located in a central, armored casemate. Two other guns were placed in the bow as chase guns, with a third mounted as a stern chaser. At around 1871, her armament was also revised, to two 10 in (250 mm) guns in the bow and eight 8 in guns, four on each broadside and the last in the stern. Later, her armament was changed again, to eight 6 in (150 mm) guns, six 4.7 in (120 mm) guns, four 57 mm (2.2 in) quick firing (QF) guns, and two 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannons. Ancona was stricken from the naval register in 1903 and then broken up for scrap.[1]