Formidabile fights on after the squadron withdraws

Vacca’s withdrawal was not effectively communicated to the attached Formidabile, leaving Saint-Bon’s ship to continue the action alone only a few hundred metres from the batteries. Her armour resisted penetration, but shells damaged the funnel and deck fittings, started fires, disabled guns, and left fourteen dead and thirty wounded. Smoke or gas from a shell explosion around a gun position further incapacitated members of the crew. Saint-Bon restored what capability he could, extracted the ship, and personally sought medical aid from the fleet commander’s flagship. Persano sent doctors from his own flagship, and the seriously wounded were transferred to the hospital ship Washington.