Leading the action from his flagship, the Rotta Fortuna, da Riva led his into the harbour. The larger and taller Venetian warships easily smashed aside the galleasses, and the minuscule amount of cannon that a single galleass could carry was no match for the dozens of cannons carried by the Venetian warships. Three galleasses were destroyed, with the rest being damaged and scattered, leaving the path into the harbour clear. The warships, one by one, sailed into the harbour and began engaging the Ottoman warships, aiming to use their overwhelming power to capture the warships and sink the galleys, which carried only a few cannons. The warships moved to engage, as they could withstand the broadside of the Venetian ones in a one-on-one engagement. However, da Riva was short one warship during the engagement, as the captain of the Esperienza had refused to sail into the harbour at all, instead keeping out to sea and only rejoining the fleet on the next day. During the action, the Ottoman fleet was slowly overwhelmed and destroyed, as the crews proved no match for Venetian, English and Dutch ones in terms of gunnery skill and seamanship, with many abandoning their ships as they sunk in the harbour.Anderson, (1952)
