he local Slavs. Yet, as no other high officer was available, Koch
told the Sailors' Council that they simply must acknowledge Vukovi['c], and
at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav flag being hoisted on all
the vessels simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the Croatian national
anthem and the firing of salutes.

THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS UNITIS"

Three hours previously to this a torpedo-boat, with Paolucci and
Rossetti on board, had sailed from Venice; and at ten o'clock in the
evening, as Paolucci tells us,[4] he and his companion, after a certain
amount of embracing, handshaking, saluting and loyal exclamations,
plunged into the water. The first obstacle was a wooden pier upon which
sentries were marching to and fro; this was safely passed by means of
two hats shaped like bottles, which Paolucci and Rossetti now put on.
The bombs were submerged, and thus the sentry saw nothing but a couple
of bottles being tossed about by the waves. A row of wooden beams,
bearing a thin electric wire, had then to be negotiated, and the last
obstacle consisted of half a dozen steel nets which had laboriously to
be disconnected from the cables which held them. It was now nearly six
o'clock; the two men cautiously approached the _Viribus Unitis_ and
fixed one of their bombs just below the water-line, underneath the
ladder conducting to the deck. Paolucci simply records, without comment,
that the ship was illuminated; perhaps he and his friend were too tired
to make the obvious deduction that the hourly-expected end of the War
had really arrived. A number of officers from other ships had remained
on the _Viribus Unitis_ after the previous evening's ceremony; but the
look-out, seeing the Italians in the water, must have thought it was
eccentric of them to come swimming out at this hour to join in the
festivities. A motor-launch soon picked them up and they were brought on
board the flag-ship. "Viva l'Italia!" they shouted, for they were proud
of dying for their country. "Viva l'Italia!" replied some of the crew to
this pair of allied officers. When they were conducted to Captain
Vukovi['c] they told him that his vessel would in a short time be blown
up. The order was given to abandon ship, and Paolucci and his friend
relate[5] that when they asked the captain if they might also try to
save themselves he shook them both by the hand, saying that they were
brave men and that they deserved to live. So they plunged into the water