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The third target: the Sicilian Prince, flying the British flag and 4,500 grt., is attacked during the night of the 30th of July.
The ship is distant, further away than the others: at least four kilometres offshore. Ferraro has covered just one kilometre when he hears a sound, a snort, a light gurgle, followed by the shifting of the water mass in which the commando is immersed. The unwelcome and unidentified travel companion re-emerges from time to time, breathing noisily. Then all at once, shortly before entering the "danger zone", within visual and hearing range of the ship’s crew, the mysterious beast recedes, leaving silence and darkness all around him.
Once again, the commando starts swimming towards his target, he has already wasted too much time. But he is winded. He leans on the floats attached to the limpet mines for a few moments, to catch his breath.
At 2 in the morning he is 30-40 metres away from the bow of the steamship. Then he reaches the ship, gliding through the water surface with imperceptible movements. His body, sheathed in his black dive suit, is entirely indiscernible, the limpet mines floating below him in mid-water. Sliding along the right side of the ship, he arrives at the bilge keel. He dives down, attaching a limpet mine by the stern first, then another by the bow, he fixes the connector ("There is no verrina here, but they could always run it later"). Following the same steps he took for the Kaituna attack, he gets to the keel of the ship, trails along it up to the bow, using his hands. Next, he emerges, swims away from the hull, vertically. And finally sets out swiftly, silently, invisibly towards the beach.
It is 2:30 in the morning. He has been in the water for four hours. He reaches the shore at 4 and finds the sack that the D65 left on a pier, as agreed. He places the equipment inside it and, with great caution, heads towards the back door of the Consulate, not more than ten metres away from the sea.
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Ferraro's efforts, however, will be in vain on this occasion as the Sicilian Prince will be inspected by British divers, who will find the limpet mines and remove them before the ship goes out to sea.
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