that airlocks could be opened and the air inside renewed for the surviving crew. Attempts were then made to ground the submarine in shallow water, but at 12.45 the next morning the crane broke, sending the submarine back to the bottom of the harbour. Further efforts to recover it, involving the French steamer Audax, were in vain. On 15 July 1905, Farfadet'' was raised using a floating dock and towed to the harbour of Sidi Abdallah. That night work began on removing the bodies. The four in the forward compartment had died instantly, the eight aft when the crane had broken. It was found that the sailors had attempted to plug the airholes with their tunics. Two more bodies were found amidships. It was found that the sulfuric acid of the engine's accumulators (batteries) had combined with the seawater to create hydrochloric acid, which had eaten away the instruments and bodies and made work on retrieval impossible until ventilators had been fitted to the aft of the vessel. The last of the crew had died after being trapped for 32 hours. Eight of the 14 crew were from Brittany. References Bibliography External links Farfadet (Q7) at sous-marins français Marc Castel (archived page) (French) Farfadet-class submarines Ships built in France 1901 ships French submarine accidents Maritime incidents in 1905 Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea