The state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs had declared neutrality in the war and informed the Allies of this shortly after taking over the armed forces on 31 October.

Taken aboard the Viribus Unitis, they informed the new captain of the battleship of what they had done but did not reveal the exact position of the explosives.

Admiral Janko Vuković arranged for the two prisoners to be taken to Tegetthoff, and ordered the Viribus Unitis to be evacuated.

[citation needed] The explosion did not happen at 6:30 as predicted and Vuković returned to the ship with many sailors, mistakenly believing that the Italians had lied.

The Pula Port seabed is now littered with thousands of parts from Austro-Hungarian ships from the Uljanik Shipyard.