 At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , Vérité was assigned to the 1st Division of the 2nd Squadron in the Mediterranean , along with République and Patrie . The French fleet was initially used to cover the movement of French troops — the XIX Corps — from Algeria to metropolitan France . As a result , the fleet was far out of position to catch the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben , which , contrary to French expectations , steamed to Constantinople rather than attempt to interfere with the troop transports . For the majority of the war , the French used their main fleet to keep the Austro @-@ Hungarian fleet bottled up in the Adriatic Sea . In 1914 she participated in the Battle of Antivari , where the battle line caught the Austro @-@ Hungarian cruiser SMS Zenta by surprise and sank her . The French battleships then bombarded Austrian fortifications at Cattaro in an attempt to draw out the Austro @-@ Hungarian fleet , which refused to take the bait . 
