During April 2005, the Department of Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Conservation Institute, in cooperation with French underwater archaeology experts, conducted exploration in the aquatorium of Vis. One of the most interesting naval battles on the Adriatic see took place along the northern coast of the island of Vis in 1866, in which the war fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire saved Vis from occupation and defeated the Italian fleet. The Italian fleet lost the large battleship Re d’Italia and the battleship Palestro.
An exploration area was determined by the northern coast of the island of Vis (rectangular area measuring 7×11 NM from Cape Stončica to 2.5 NM west of Cape Barjaci). The daily search fields that were set on the screens of the sonar devices located in the control room of the research ship Janus II were also determined. Sonar (side scan sonar) scanned the seabed at a depth of more than 100 meters, in a zone of 300 meters.
A survey of the seabed by sonar indicated several potential locations of sunken ships. These locations were then additionally checked with an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle), i.e., a robot camera. As the discovery of a sunken ship indicated that it could be an Italian ship, it was decided that the French-Croatian researchers would confirm it by repeated diving with the research submarine Remora 2000. During the dive, the deck, metal armour plates, parts of the mast and the “battle beak” – the rostra for striking and piercing enemy ships – were identified, which proved that it was indeed the battleship Re d’Italia. Using the submarine’s mechanical robot arm, two samples were collected from the ship: a compass stand and an oval-shaped plate. As the items were extracted from a depth greater than 115 m, desalination, restorative cleaning, and stabilization were carried out. The plate has been meticulously cleaned, revealing the rim gilding with the inscribed letters RM (Regno Marina?).
In the Vis aquatorium were documented other two transport ships from World War II, and also an aircraft from World War II (Jasen Mesić 2006, Hrvatski arheološki godišnjak 2/2005, 414–416).