surrounding swampland had hindered its development. In addition to Pola's new drydock, Ferdinand Max had the swamps drained and constructed a new arsenal for the city. By 1855, a screw-powered ship-of-the-line was under construction in Pola after failed bids to construct the ship with British and American shipbuilding firms, while two screw-frigates and two screw-corvettes were being built in Trieste and Venice respectively. Within a year of Ferdinand Max's promotion to Oberkommandant, the Austrian Navy consisted of four frigates, four corvettes, and two paddle steamers in active service in the Mediterranean Sea. Ferdinand Max followed up on this progress however by purchasing the steam frigate from the United Kingdom in 1856. Her design was used for the construction of future ships of the Navy, and marked the beginning of Austria's modern shipbuilding industry. From 1856 onward, a majority of Austria's ships were constructed by domestic shipyards. Ferdinand Max's next construction project was the last Austrian ship-of-the-line, . She was commissioned into the Austrian Navy in 1859 after being constructed at the newly built Pola Navy Yard between 1855 and 1858. As a result of these construction projects, the Austrian Navy grew to its largest size since the War of Austrian Succession over 100 years prior. Despite these efforts however, the Navy was still considerably smaller than its French, British, or Sardinian counterparts. Indeed, the Austrian Navy was still attempting to catch up to the technological developments which had emerged during the first half of the 19th century with respect to steam power, when the emergence of the French iron-platted floating battery Dévastation gained international attention following its use during the Crimean War in October 1855. Dévastation signalled the beginning of the emergence of ironclad warships over the course of the next decade. Indeed, the French Navy's technological and numerical edge proved to be decisive in driving the Austrian Navy to port shortly after the outbreak of the Second War of Italian Independence. After the failure of the First Italian War of Independence, Sardinia began the search for potential allies. Sardinian Prime Minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, found French Emperor Napoleon III supportive of an alliance with Sardinia following the Crimean War, in which France and Sardinia were allies against the Russian Empire. After the Plombières Agreement of 1858, Napoleon III and Cavour signed a secret treaty of alliance against Austria whereby France would assist Sardinia in return for Nice