March, the Austrian troops in Venice were forced from the city and the Austrian Navy appeared to be collapsing as many of the Austrian sailors and officers were of Italian descent. Fearing mutinies, Austrian officers ultimately relieved these Italian sailors of their duty and permitted them to return home. While this action left the Navy drastically undermanned, it prevented any wide-scale disintegration within the Navy which the Austrian Army had repeatedly suffered from in Italy. The loss of so many Italian crew members and officers meant that the remaining ships which did not fall into rebel hands in Venice were lacking many crews. Out of roughly 5,000 men who were members of the Austrian Navy prior to the revolution, only 72 officers and 665 sailors remained. Further complicating matters for the Austrian Navy was the loss of Venice's naval dockyards, warehouses, its arsenal, as well as three corvettes and several smaller vessels to the Venetian rebels. The loss of Vice-Admiral Martini was also a blow to Austrians, as the Navy had gone through no less than four Commanders-in-Chief within three months of the death of Archduke Friedrich in late 1847. Martini's capture left the Navy without a commander for the fifth time in as many months. In the aftermath of the loss of Venice, the Austrian Navy reorganized itself under the temporary command of General Count Franz Gyulai. Gyulai recalled every Austrian ship in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and in the Levant. Due to Trieste's close location to the parts of Italy revolting against Austrian rule at the time, Gyulai also chose the small port of Pola as the new base for the Austrian Navy. This marked the first time the city had been used as an Austrian naval base, and from 1848 onwards the city continued to serve as a base for Austrian warships until the end of World War I. In late April, this fleet began a blockade of Venice in order to assist Austria's army currently fighting the Italian nationalists who had seized the city. Meanwhile, fortunes continued to fade for the Austrians. The Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies both joined the war on the side of Sardinia, the later sending a naval force into the Adriatic in cooperation with Sardinia to help seize Venice. This Italian fleet consisted of five frigates and several smaller vessels acquired by the Italian nationalists in Venice.