Taken on Board
“The motor boat reaches us, paying no attention to our apparatus, and they take us on board. It is 5.45. We are recognized as Italians and they take us to the ladder on the port side of the ship. A crowd of sailors receives us at the top of the ladder. We feel it our duty to shout ‘Viva l’Italia!’ This demonstration, contrary to what might be expected, is received in a spirit rather more cordial than hostile. To our surprise we notice the new Jugoslav insignia on the caps. We are asked, in Venetian dialect, how we come to be here. We answer (as Commander Ciano had suggested) that we lighted on the water in a hydroplane which we had afterward sunk. In the meantime they are escorting us aft. The friendly reception and the changed nationality of the fleet cause us to hesitate a bit; we consult and come to a decision, asking to speak with the Captain on a very important and urgent matter. The Captain is called, and it is 6 o’clock when he receives me in his cabin. I give him Dr. Paolucci’s knife, which I find myself still holding, and inform him that his ship is in immediate and very serious danger. The Captain inquires the nature of the serious danger and asks if other ships are in the same peril. I answer that I cannot disclose the nature of the danger and that no other ship is involved.
“The Captain picks up his lifebelt and leaves the cabin at once, giving loud orders in German that all should leave the ship. We follow him up on deck, where he repeats the order—obeyed, scatteringly, by all. I ask the Captain to permit Dr. Paolucci and myself to leave the ship. He consents, and we go down the ladder at the right and swim off toward the ship’s stern with the current, but impeded by the great weight of our clothing. Numbers of swimming sailors pass us, as well as boats loaded with members of the crew. Searchlight signals are flashed to the nearest ship, Tegethoff, which sends boats to our assistance.
“About 6.20 a boat picks us up and takes us back to the ladder on the right of the Viribus Unitis, where a large boat is waiting for the remainder of the crew. When we reach the deck we are received with threats, though the men are not especially violent. I lose sight of Dr. Paolucci in the crowd. It seems that they no longer believe in our warning or in the danger. A sailor begins to rip up my waterproof suit with his knife; others go through my pockets.
“There is a short, smothered thunderclap; the ship shivers violently, while a crest of foam is thrown up all along her starboard side. External damage is very slight, but the ship heels over to the right, at first very rapidly, then more slowly, but steadily. Most of the crowd has left us; a few, however, now close in, threatening to shut us up on board. The Captain, who stands a few meters off, shows no interest in our fate. I appeal to him, reminding him that we are prisoners of war; that what we have done, as belligerents, gives us the right to have our persons respected; that the threatened treatment is contrary to rules of war. The Captain acknowledges the justice of my protest, again gives permission for us to leave, and gives orders in German for a boat within hailing distance on the left of the stern to return and take us off the ship. I succeed meanwhile, with the help of Dr. Paolucci, in ridding myself of my waterproof suit, which had hampered me in swimming and which the sailors had ripped open.
“Dr. Paolucci and I let ourselves down into the water on the port side of the stern. We are both pulled into the boat and can watch the end of the Viribus Unitis. She is still settling on the right. When the water almost reaches the deck—although the ship is still high out of the water—she suddenly heels over with remarkable rapidity. In a few seconds nothing is visible save the flat bottom of the keel and the four screws—encircled by smoke, flames, and fragments of shattered wood—while the sea all around is lashed up into frothy waves. One sailor in our boat gives vent to his grief in a most touching manner; all the others appear indifferent. If my calculations are correct not ten minutes elapsed between the explosion and the end.
“I have learned with sincere grief that Captain Ianko Vukovic de Podkapelski of the Viribus Unitis was wounded by a fragment of the sunken ship while swimming to a place of safety. He was picked up and carried to the hospital in Pola but died a few hours afterward. Throughout, he was most chivalrous, and treated us with all the consideration that one could expect from an honorable enemy.