Through Unseen Perils
The submarine's Lieutenant-Commander sent one wireless message prior to
starting on his dash for the Sea of Marmora. Under the circumstances
it was desirable, in spite of the chance of its being intercepted by
the enemy.
The message was to the Admiral, to the effect that, acting upon
information supplied by Sub-Lieutenant Richard Crosthwaite, of H.M.S.
_Hammerer_, who with Midshipman Farnworth succeeded in effecting his
escape from the enemy, the officer commanding H.M. Submarine "E--"
succeeded in torpedoing and destroying a German _unterseeboot_ in the
neighbourhood of Smyrna; and that he was in possession of information
that suggested the anticipated arrival of other German submarines from
their North Sea bases.
Back came the reply:
"Admiral heartily congratulates officer commanding 'E--' on his
brilliant exploit, and Sub-lieutenant Crosthwaite and Midshipman
Farnworth on their escape."
"Good!" ejaculated Lieutenant-Commander Huxtable. "Unship the wireless
mast. We won't need that again until we've done something to shake the
Turks up."
Running awash, the submarine skirted the shore till the outlines of Kum
Kale appeared in sight. Then diving to a depth of eight fathoms, in
order to be well clear of the keels of any British battleships cruising
in the vicinity, she headed for The Narrows.
With a suddenness peculiar to the Mediterranean a strong wind had
sprung up, causing a heavy sea to run at the entrance to the
Dardanelles, and as a result the submarine jumped violently in a
vertical direction as each wave passed forty to sixty feet above her.
"Thank goodness it won't be for long," remarked the skipper. "It's the
current against the wind that makes such a beast of a jump. I wouldn't
like to tackle the anchored mines with this tumble on; but you'll find
we'll pick up smooth water as soon as we leave Eski Hissarlik on our
port quarter."
For three hours the submarine literally groped her way, running at
seven knots against a current the velocity of which is rarely less than
five. At the end of that interval she showed her periscope with the
utmost diffidence. An observation revealed Kephez Point broad on the
starboard beam, and the battered fort of Kilid Bahr a couple of points
on the port bow.
"We've fouled something, sir," reported the Acting Sub-lieutenant of
the submarine, a youngster but recently promoted from midshipman.
"By Jove, we have!" agreed his superior officer, as he glanced through
the small observation-scuttle in the side of the conning-tower.
"Awkward--confoundedly awkward!"
He was seriously annoyed; not at the immediate danger, but at the
failure of his device to ward off obstructions; for in ascending the
submarine had risen immediately underneath the anchor-chamber of a mine
that had broken adrift, but still retained the metal box containing the
depth-regulating mechanism. The anchor-chamber had engaged on the
inside of the starboard girder, and what was more, a length of loose
rope had trailed aft and was almost within the sweep of one of the twin
propellers. In another few seconds the rope would be wound round and
round the boss as tightly as a steel hawser.
Promptly the electric motors were switched off. For the time being one
danger was averted. It remained to shake the submarine clear of the
powerful charge of explosive that was hitched up within seven feet of
the conning-tower. One slight tap on one of the many sensitive
"feelers" of the mine would result in the total destruction of the
submarine and her daring crew.
"Flood auxiliary ballast-tanks," ordered the Lieutenant-Commander.
Slowly, as the water hissed into the strong steel compartments, the
submarine sank in a vertical direction. For the nonce her
diving-rudders were useless. She was stationary as far as movement in
a horizontal direction was concerned.
The officers anxiously watched the hand of the steel indicating the
depth. At twelve fathoms the downward movement ceased. The
Lieutenant-Commander had hoped that the buoyancy of the mine would
release the anchor-chamber from the steel girder that in this instance
had proved to be a source of danger rather than a protection; but
no--the submerged vessel had drawn both anchor-chamber and mine beneath
the surface.
"Prepare to anchor--let go!"
With a sullen roar, intensified by the confined space, the stockless
anchor was released from its "housing" at the for'ard end of the keel.
Suddenly the studded-linked cable "snubbed" as the flukes obtained a
hold; then, anchored at fifteen fathoms beneath the surface, the
submarine fretted easily at her cable in the five-knot current.
Again the Lieutenant-Commander peered through the scuttle. At that
depth the light that filtered through the water was just and only just
sufficient to enable him to discern the deadly object still clinging
tenaciously to the submerged craft. Under the action of the current it
tilted ominously, though fortunately not sufficiently for any of the
projecting "feelers" to come in contact with the metal plating of the
anchored submarine.
"We'll stand easy," remarked the skipper to his augmented group of
officers. "We're safe enough for the present, only it's a wicked waste
of valuable time. As soon as it gets dark we'll ascend and cut the
blessed thing adrift."
Half an hour later the officers were sitting down to a hot meal cooked
on an electric grill. The repast over, Lieutenant-Commander Huxtable
turned to his companion and coolly suggested a hand at bridge.
Dick took a hand with the three executive officers of the submarine,
but his luck was out. He could not concentrate his mind upon the game.
His eyes were constantly wandering. Almost every minute he glanced at
the clock, the hands of which appeared to move with exasperating
slowness.
"Come, come!" exclaimed the Lieutenant-Commander. "You'll be cleared
out if we go on playing for another hour. Pull yourself together, man."
But the encouragement was thrown away, for although the three submarine
officers played with the greatest enthusiasm, Dick made a sorry show.
"Hanged if I can play, sir!" he declared. "I wonder how you can, with
that mine alongside."
"You'd soon get used to it," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. "I
don't mind admitting that we all feel a bit jumpy at first, but it
passes off. But it's after sunset. We'll see what we can do directly
we've finished this round--your deal, partner."
The game over, the Lieutenant-Commander returned to his post in the
conning-tower. He was hoping against hope that during the interval the
buoyancy of the mine might have been sufficient to break the already
rotten rope, but on flashing a powerful electric torch through the
glass of the scuttle the formidable cylinder could still be discerned.
The order was given to weigh, and under the action of an electric winch
the cable came home fathom by fathom until the anchor was once more
housed in the recess provided. No longer held, the submarine was
drifting backwards in the steady current.
"Blow auxiliary tanks."
Quickly the water ballast was dispelled from the supplementary tanks,
and relieved of this weight the vessel slowly rose until her
conning-tower and deck were awash.
Opening the hatch, the Lieutenant-Commander, accompanied by a petty
officer and a leading seaman, gained the open air, and at once
proceeded to remove the deadly mine.
There was a certain amount of reflected glow from the search-light
that, once their eyes grew accustomed to the comparative darkness,
enabled them to see fairly distinctly.
Clambering cautiously along the horizontal strut that strengthened the
curved girder, the men made a careful survey of the metal cylinder
before attempting to handle it. Apparently it had been in the water
for some weeks, for barnacles and slimy weeds were adhering to its
surface. The "horns" or "feelers" were, fortunately, pointing away
from the hull of the submarine; nevertheless the task of disengaging
the mine without allowing it to scrape or jam against any form of solid
resistance was fraught with danger. A slight tap upon one of those
numerous spike-like projections would result in death to every man on
board.
Examination proved that not only was the mine with its attendant
anchor-chamber entangled by means of a hempen rope, but a length of
wire had stubbornly intertwined itself round a portion of the girder,
so that the mine, swinging towards the metal hull, was practically
midway between it and the curved side of the vessel.
"A hack-saw there," ordered the Lieutenant-Commander. "Oil it well, or
the rasping will give the show away."
The required tool was quickly forthcoming, and the two men tackled
their dangerous task. For twenty minutes they worked desperately,
momentarily expecting to be "picked up" by the search-lights that were
playing ominously close to the dark-grey hull of the submarine.
"Through, sir," announced one of the men breathlessly. "Shall we
topple it over?"
"No, no," replied the skipper hurriedly. "Are you quite sure that
everything's clear?"
"Aye, aye, sir."
The mine was now held in position only by the triangle formed by the
girder, its horizontal brace, and a two-inch teak plank placed
diagonally across the metal work. Fortunately the sea was now calm and
the submarine's motion barely perceptible.
"Diving-stations," ordered Huxtable. "It's neck or nothing."
The water-tight hatches were closed and secured, and water admitted
into the ballast tanks, both main and auxiliary, for it was her
commander's intention to submerge the submarine in a vertical position
without having recourse to the use of the propeller and diving-planes.
In sinking, the submarine, he hoped, would be automatically freed of
its dangerous encumbrance, since the buoyancy of the mine would float
it clear when the craft was completely submerged.
Instinctively Dick shut his jaw tightly as he heard the hiss of the
water pouring into the tanks. He fully realized the delicate
operation, for a list of any magnitude would result in the mine
toppling over from its insecure perch as it did so. It was not
pleasant to realize that he was in a hermetically sealed steel box with
a dangerous neighbour in the shape of seventy-six pounds of gun-cotton.
He glanced at the Lieutenant-Commander, who was peering anxiously
through the slit in the conning-tower, and although he moved not a
muscle the perspiration was standing out in beads on his temples.
Presently he turned his head.
"At that!" he ordered, addressing the men standing by the valve of the
ballast chamber. "Turn horizontal rudders to ten degrees down. Half
speed ahead."
A gasp of relief echoed through the confined space. The men gave a
cheer. They understood: one danger had been successfully combated.
The steady thud of the throttled-down motors alone imparted the sense
of motion as the submarine, fifty feet beneath the surface, resumed her
blind grope up The Narrows.
Twice only during the negotiation of that intricate passage did the
Lieutenant-Commander show the top of the periscope above water. The
first observation revealed the feet that Nagara was well on the
starboard hand, and that an alteration of helm was necessary to avoid
piling the submerged craft upon shoals that, owing to the irregularity
of coast-line, were directly ahead.
The second convinced Huxtable that the course was now practically a
straight one for the Sea of Marmora as far as direction went; but he
knew that in that stretch of water which lay between him and the inland
sea were at least six rows of anchored electro-contact mines.
"A vessel on our port bow, sir," declared Dick, who before the
submarine could submerge her periscope had glanced into the
object-bowl. It was a picture of darkness which met his eye, but
across that expanse of dull leaden colour, that indicated a blend of
sea and sky on a rainy night, he had detected a still darker object
travelling slowly across the "field" of the periscope, the "iris" of
which was opened to its fullest extent in order to admit the maximum
amount of light, which was very small.
"A torpedo-boat," decided the Lieutenant-Commander after a brief
survey. "She would make an easy target, but we'll let her go. It
would mean betraying our presence, and that would never do. One thing
she's taught us, that is that the passage through the next mine-field
is hard against the Asiatic side. We'll let her pass, and then pick up
her wake."
The Turkish torpedo-boat was evidently bound from the neighbourhood of
Nagara for the Bosphorus. She was steaming at fifteen knots and,
judging by the clouds of black smoke tinged with dark-red and orange
flames, was under forced draught.
Unsuspectingly the boat held on her course, little thinking that within
two cables' length of her a British submarine was following the
phosphorescent swirl that marked her track. Either the men of her
watch on deck were lax in their duties or else they devoted their
attention to keeping a look-out ahead and abeam, for the cascade of
foam that marked the swiftly-moving periscope passed unnoticed.
Ready at the first alarm to tilt the horizontal diving-rudders,
Huxtable conned the submarine. He was in high spirits, for the thought
that an enemy torpedo-boat was acting as a pilot amused and elated him.
Although prepared to take the risk of diving under the mine-field, he
fully admitted his preference to be conducted in safety through the
danger-zone.
Once the torpedo-boat sharply ported her helm. For the moment it
seemed as if the submarine had been spotted, but since no shell was
fired from the Turkish craft the Lieutenant-Commander surmised that the
change of course had been rendered necessary by the intricacies of the
secret passage through the mine-field.
Allowing sufficient distance the submarine followed suit, until the
torpedo-boat swung round on her former course. She had cleared the
danger-zone, and her imitator had done likewise.
Slowly but surely the Turkish craft was out-distancing the invisible
submarine, whose utmost limit when submerged was not equal to that of
the torpedo-boat. Half an hour later all traces of her had
disappeared. Even the churned wake had blended utterly with the
surrounding waves.
The submarine was now about to enter the Sea of Marmora. The
search-lights of Gallipoli were broad on the port beam. On the port
bow a row of flickering lights marked the camp-fires in the Bulair
lines. A triple row of anchored mines had to be avoided before the
British craft was clear of the upper reaches of the Dardanelles.
Down she went till the gauge indicated a depth of fifty-five feet, then
regaining an even keel she forged slowly ahead, deliberately feeling
her way through the black water.
A peculiar rasping, muffled sound attracted Dick's attention. The
Lieutenant-Commander heard it too. The two men exchanged glances.
"One line passed," announced Huxtable when the noise ceased. "That was
the mooring wire of one of the mines scraping along our protective
girders."
Ten seconds later came a similar sound, this time overhead. The
submarine was passing under a horizontal bridle connecting two mines.
The arched girder saved her, for had the obstruction caught in the
for'ard end of the conning-tower or the housed periscope, the "way" of
the vessel would have swung the two mines together with annihilating
effects. As it was, the Lieutenant-Commander merely depressed the
boat's bows, and without any trouble the submerged craft glided
underneath the cable of death.
"Two!" ejaculated the skipper laconically.
Dick's spirits rose rapidly. After all, he reasoned, diving under
mines was an exciting form of sport, with very little danger. The
operation seemed far less hazardous than running the gauntlet of The
Narrows in the _Calder_.
Suddenly came the dull roar of an explosion. The submarine heeled
dangerously, and quivered till it seemed that her plating was on the
point of buckling.
Instinctively Crosthwaite grasped the hand-rail of the steel ladder
leading to the conning-tower hatch-way. In any case it was a futile
action, since there was no possible escape that way. He momentarily
expected to hear the rush of water, driven under tremendous pressure
into the shattered hull.
The submarine had come in contact with a mine.