The _Monge_ belonged to the class of submarines that have to use a
steam engine for recharging their diving accumulators. It had been
scouting ahead of the rest of the flotilla and had crept close to the
Bocche di Cattaro that night when the Austrian fleet came out. At 12.15
A. M. Commandant Morillot sighted the lights of the Austrian vessels.
How many he couldn't tell, nor how far away they were. He submerged
to 20 feet, leaving the night periscope above the surface. Suddenly
he was aware of a rapidly approaching huge black mass, and was giving
orders to fire a torpedo from the port tube when a hitherto unseen
vessel passed at 30 knots right over the _Monge_. Its keel struck the
submarine; the shock was terrific. The little boat rolled almost over.
The conning tower was smashed and the sea poured in through a gaping
hole.
The crew of the _Monge_ tumbled in heaps against the partitions of the
compartments in which they happened to be. The stern dropped, the bows
rose, and the boat began sinking stern foremost at an angle of 30 or 40
degrees. Abominable gases rose as the sea water flooded the tanks of
sulphuric acid.
The electric lights went out. The _Monge_ wabbled downwards in pitch
darkness.
It is such moments as these that test master and men. How both were
equal to the emergency, let Chief Electrician Joffry relate: