British and Italian accounts of Cape Bon do not give the same ship order or assign every action to the same vessel. The reconstruction therefore uses British archival sources for British maneuvers and Italian sources for Italian maneuvers. Each side's description of the opponent is tested against the sequence of events instead of being forced into a single uncontested story. The passage offers a compact lesson in source criticism because neither side heard the other's conversations, and both could misidentify what they saw.
Notable Point · 19:23-20:51
How to reconcile conflicting Cape Bon accounts
The Cape Bon account relies on each side's records for its own maneuvers and treats enemy identification more cautiously.