 Traveling down the rows of Austrian battleships, the two men encountered Viribus Unitis at around 4: 40 am. Rossetti placed one canister of TNT on the hull of the battleship, timed to explode at 6: 30 am. He then flooded the second canister, sinking it on the harbor floor close to the ship. This second canister exploded close to the Austrian freighter Wien, resulting in her sinking. The men had no breathing sets, and therefore had to keep their heads above water. They were discovered and taken prisoner just after placing the explosives under the battleship's hull. The Italians did not know that the Austrian government had handed over Viribus Unitis, along with most of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, to the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The two-man team were captured and taken aboard Viribus Unitis, where they informed the new captain of the battleship what they had done but did not reveal the exact position of the explosives. Vuković then arranged for the two prisoners to be taken safely to the sister ship Tegetthoff, and ordered the evacuation of the ship. The explosion did not happen at 6: 30 as predicted and Vuković returned to the ship with many sailors (believing mistakenly that the Italians had lied). He therefore remained on his ship and went down with her and 300 – 400 of her crew when the mines exploded shortly afterwards at 6: 44. Following the explosion, the battleship sank in 15 minutes. The two Italian crew were interned for a few days until the end of the war and were honored by the Kingdom of Italy with the Gold Medal of Military Valor.
