Five minutes later, the Allied ships spotted clouds of smoke on the horizon and Acton ordered the Italian ships to attack shortly afterwards while the two British cruisers turned to cut off the two Austrian destroyers. "Aquila" opened fire at 08:15 at long range, but inflicted no damage before she was immobilised by a hit at 08:32 that detonated inside her central boiler room and severed her main steam pipe. The Austrian ships managed to disengage before the cruisers could close the distance.