_August_ 24_th_,
CROWBOROUGH.
I. DANGER! {1}
BEING THE LOG OF CAPTAIN JOHN SIRIUS
It is an amazing thing that the English, who have the reputation of being
a practical nation, never saw the danger to which they were exposed. For
many years they had been spending nearly a hundred millions a year upon
their army and their fleet. Squadrons of Dreadnoughts costing two
millions each had been launched. They had spent enormous sums upon
cruisers, and both their torpedo and their submarine squadrons were
exceptionally strong. They were also by no means weak in their aerial
power, especially in the matter of seaplanes. Besides all this, their
army was very efficient, in spite of its limited numbers, and it was the
most expensive in Europe. Yet when the day of trial came, all this
imposing force was of no use whatever, and might as well have not
existed. Their ruin could not have been more complete or more rapid if
they had not possessed an ironclad or a regiment. And all this was
accomplished by me, Captain John Sirius, belonging to the navy of one of
the smallest Powers in Europe, and having under my command a flotilla of
eight vessels, the collective cost of which was eighteen hundred thousand
pounds. No one has a better right to tell the story than I.
I will not trouble you about the dispute concerning the Colonial
frontier, embittered, as it was, by the subsequent death of the two
missionaries. A naval officer has nothing to do with politics. I only
came upon the scene after the ultimatum had been actually received.
Admiral Horli had been summoned to the Presence, and he asked that I
should be allowed to accompany him, because he happened to know that I
had some clear ideas as to the weak points of England, and also some
schemes as to how to take advantage of them. There were only four of us
present at this meeting--the King, the Foreign Secretary, Admiral Horli,
and myself. The time allowed by the ultimatum expired in forty-eight
hours.
I am not breaking any confidence when I say that both the King and the
Minister were in favour of a surrender. They saw no possibility of
standing up against the colossal power of Great Britain. The Minister
had drawn up an acceptance of the British terms, and the King sat with it
before him on the table. I saw the tears of anger and humiliation run
down his cheeks as he looked at it.
"I fear that there is no possible alternative, Sire," said the Minister.
"Our envoy in London has just sent this report, which shows that the
public and the Press are more united than he has ever known them. The
feeling is intense, especially since the rash act of Malort in
desecrating the flag. We must give way."
The King looked sadly at Admiral Horli.
"What is your effective fleet, Admiral?" he asked.
"Two battleships, four cruisers, twenty torpedo-boats, and eight
submarines," said the Admiral.
The King shook his head.
"It would be madness to resist," said he.
"And yet, Sire," said the Admiral, "before you come to a decision I
should wish you to hear Captain Sirius, who has a very definite plan of
campaign against the English."
"Absurd!" said the King, impatiently. "What is the use? Do you imagine
that you could defeat their vast armada?"
"Sire," I answered, "I will stake my life that if you will follow my
advice you will, within a month or six weeks at the utmost, bring proud
England to her knees."
There was an assurance in my voice which arrested the attention of the
King.
"You seem self-confident, Captain Sirius."
"I have no doubt at all, Sire."
"What then would you advise?"
"I would advise, Sire, that the whole fleet be gathered under the forts
of Blankenberg and be protected from attack by booms and piles. There
they can stay till the war is over. The eight submarines, however, you
will leave in my charge to use as I think fit."
"Ah, you would attack the English battleships with submarines?"
"Sire, I would never go near an English battleship."
"And why not?"
"Because they might injure me, Sire."
"What, a sailor and afraid?"
"My life belongs to the country, Sire. It is nothing. But these eight
ships--everything depends upon them. I could not risk them. Nothing
would induce me to fight."
"Then what will you do?"
"I will tell you, Sire." And I did so. For half an hour I spoke. I was
clear and strong and definite, for many an hour on a lonely watch I had
spent in thinking out every detail. I held them enthralled. The King
never took his eyes from my face. The Minister sat as if turned to
stone.
"Are you sure of all this?"
"Perfectly, Sire."
The King rose from the table.
"Send no answer to the ultimatum," said he. "Announce in both houses
that we stand firm in the face of menace. Admiral Horli, you will in all
respects carry out that which Captain Sirius may demand in furtherance of
his plan. Captain Sirius, the field is clear. Go forth and do as you
have said. A grateful King will know how to reward you."
I need not trouble you by telling you the measures which were taken at
Blankenberg, since, as you are aware, the fortress and the entire fleet
were destroyed by the British within a week of the declaration of war. I
will confine myself to my own plans, which had so glorious and final a
result.
The fame of my eight submarines, _Alpha_, _Beta_, _Gamma_, _Theta_,
_Delta_, _Epsilon_, _Iota_, and _Kappa_, have spread through the world to
such an extent that people have begun to think that there was something
peculiar in their form and capabilities. This is not so. Four of them,
the _Delta_, _Epsilon_, _Iota_, and _Kappa_, were, it is true, of the
very latest model, but had their equals (though not their superiors) in
the navies of all the great Powers. As to _Alpha_, _Beta_, _Gamma_, and
_Theta_, they were by no means modern vessels, and found their prototypes
in the old F class of British boats, having a submerged displacement of
eight hundred tons, with heavy oil engines of sixteen hundred
horse-power, giving them a speed of eighteen knots on the surface and of
twelve knots submerged. Their length was one hundred and eighty-six and
their breadth twenty-four feet. They had a radius of action of four
thousand miles and a submerged endurance of nine hours. These were
considered the latest word in 1915, but the four new boats exceeded them
in all respects. Without troubling you with precise figures, I may say
that they represented roughly a twenty-five per cent. advance up on the
older boats, and were fitted with several auxiliary engines which were
wanting in the others. At my suggestion, instead of carrying eight of
the very large Bakdorf torpedoes, which are nineteen feet long, weigh
half a ton, and are charged with two hundred pounds of wet gun-cotton, we
had tubes designed for eighteen of less than half the size. It was my
design to make myself independent of my base.
And yet it was clear that I must have a base, so I made arrangements at
once with that object. Blankenberg was the last place I would have
chosen. Why should I have a _port_ of any kind? Ports would be watched
or occupied. Any place would do for me. I finally chose a small villa
standing alone nearly five miles from any village and thirty miles from
any port. To this I ordered them to convey, secretly by night, oil,
spare parts, extra torpedoes, storage batteries, reserve periscopes, and
everything that I could need for refitting. The little whitewashed villa
of a retired confectioner--that was the base from which I operated
against England.
The boats lay at Blankenberg, and thither I went. They were working
frantically at the defences, and they had only to look seawards to be
spurred to fresh exertions. The British fleet was assembling. The
ultimatum had not yet expired, but it was evident that a blow would be
struck the instant that it did. Four of their aeroplanes, circling at an
immense height, were surveying our defences. From the top of the
lighthouse I counted thirty battleships and cruisers in the offing, with
a number of the trawlers with which in the British service they break
through the mine-fields. The approaches were actually sown with two
hundred mines, half contact and half observation, but the result showed
that they were insufficient to hold off the enemy, since three days later
both town and fleet were speedily destroyed.
However, I am not here to tell you the incidents of the war, but to
explain my own part in it, which had such a decisive effect upon the
result. My first action was to send my four second-class boats away
instantly to the point which I had chosen for my base. There they were
to wait submerged, lying with negative buoyancy upon the sands in twenty
foot of water, and rising only at night. My strict orders were that they
were to attempt nothing upon the enemy, however tempting the opportunity.
All they had to do was to remain intact and unseen, until they received
further orders. Having made this clear to Commander Panza, who had
charge of this reserve flotilla, I shook him by the hand and bade him
farewell, leaving with him a sheet of notepaper upon which I had
explained the tactics to be used and given him certain general principles
which he could apply as circumstances demanded.
My whole attention was now given to my own flotilla, which I divided into
two divisions, keeping _Iota_ and _Kappa_ under my own command, while
Captain Miriam had _Delta_ and _Epsilon_. He was to operate separately
in the British Channel, while my station was the Straits of Dover. I
made the whole plan of campaign clear to him. Then I saw that each ship
was provided with all it could carry. Each had forty tons of heavy oil
for surface propulsion and charging the dynamo which supplied the
electric engines under water. Each had also eighteen torpedoes as
explained and five hundred rounds for the collapsible quick-firing twelve-
pounder which we carried on deck, and which, of course, disappeared into
a water-tight tank when we were submerged. We carried spare periscopes
and a wireless mast, which could be elevated above the conning-tower when
necessary. There were provisions for sixteen days for the ten men who
manned each craft. Such was the equipment of the four boats which were
destined to bring to naught all the navies and armies of Britain. At
sundown that day--it was April 10th--we set forth upon our historic
voyage.
Miriam had got away in the afternoon, since he had so much farther to go
to reach his station. Stephan, of the _Kappa_, started with me; but, of
course, we realized that we must work independently, and that from that
moment when we shut the sliding hatches of our conning-towers on the
still waters of Blankenberg Harbour it was unlikely that we should ever
see each other again, though consorts in the same waters. I waved to
Stephan from the side of my conning-tower, and he to me. Then I called
through the tube to my engineer (our water-tanks were already filled and
all kingstons and vents closed) to put her full speed ahead.
Just as we came abreast of the end of the pier and saw the white-capped
waves rolling in upon us, I put the horizontal rudder hard down and she
slid under water. Through my glass portholes I saw its light green
change to a dark blue, while the manometer in front of me indicated
twenty feet. I let her go to forty, because I should then be under the
warships of the English, though I took the chance of fouling the moorings
of our own floating contact mines. Then I brought her on an even keel,
and it was music to my ear to hear the gentle, even ticking of my
electric engines and to know that I was speeding at twelve miles an hour
on my great task.
At that moment, as I stood controlling my levers in my tower, I could
have seen, had my cupola been of glass, the vast shadows of the British
blockaders hovering above me. I held my course due westward for ninety
minutes, and then, by shutting off the electric engine without blowing
out the water-tanks, I brought her to the surface. There was a rolling
sea and the wind was freshening, so I did not think it safe to keep my
hatch open long, for so small is the margin of buoyancy that one must run
no risks. But from the crests of the rollers I had a look backwards at
Blankenberg, and saw the black funnels and upper works of the enemy's
fleet with the lighthouse and the castle behind them, all flushed with
the pink glow of the setting sun. Even as I looked there was the boom of
a great gun, and then another. I glanced at my watch. It was six
o'clock. The time of the ultimatum had expired. We were at war.
There was no craft near us, and our surface speed is nearly twice that of
our submerged, so I blew out the tanks and our whale-back came over the
surface. All night we were steering south-west, making an average of
eighteen knots. At about five in the morning, as I stood alone upon my
tiny bridge, I saw, low down in the west, the scattered lights of the
Norfolk coast. "Ah, Johnny, Johnny Bull," I said, as I looked at them,
"you are going to have your lesson, and I am to be your master. It is I
who have been chosen to teach you that one cannot live under artificial
conditions and yet act as if they were natural ones. More foresight,
Johnny, and less party politics--that is my lesson to you." And then I
had a wave of pity, too, when I thought of those vast droves of helpless
people, Yorkshire miners, Lancashire spinners, Birmingham metal-workers,
the dockers and workers of London, over whose little homes I would bring
the shadow of starvation. I seemed to see all those wasted eager hands
held out for food, and I, John Sirius, dashing it aside. Ah, well! war
is war, and if one is foolish one must pay the price.
Just before daybreak I saw the lights of a considerable town, which must
have been Yarmouth, bearing about ten miles west-south-west on our
starboard bow. I took her farther out, for it is a sandy, dangerous
coast, with many shoals. At five-thirty we were abreast of the Lowestoft
lightship. A coastguard was sending up flash signals which faded into a
pale twinkle as the white dawn crept over the water. There was a good
deal of shipping about, mostly fishing-boats and small coasting craft,
with one large steamer hull-down to the west, and a torpedo destroyer
between us and the land. It could not harm us, and yet I thought it as
well that there should be no word of our presence, so I filled my tanks
again and went down to ten feet. I was pleased to find that we got under
in one hundred and fifty seconds. The life of one's boat may depend on
this when a swift craft comes suddenly upon you.
We were now within a few hours of our cruising ground, so I determined to
snatch a rest, leaving Vornal in charge. When he woke me at ten o'clock
we were running on the surface, and had reached the Essex coast off the
Maplin Sands. With that charming frankness which is one of their
characteristics, our friends of England had informed us by their Press
that they had put a cordon of torpedo-boats across the Straits of Dover
to prevent the passage of submarines, which is about as sensible as to
lay a wooden plank across a stream to keep the eels from passing. I knew
that Stephan, whose station lay at the western end of the Solent, would
have no difficulty in reaching it. My own cruising ground was to be at
the mouth of the Thames, and here I was at the very spot with my tiny
_Iota_, my eighteen torpedoes, my quick-firing gun, and, above all, a
brain that knew what should be done and how to do it.
When I resumed my place in the conning-tower I saw in the periscope (for
we had dived) that a lightship was within a few hundred yards of us upon
the port bow. Two men were sitting on her bulwarks, but neither of them
cast an eye upon the little rod that clove the water so close to them. It
was an ideal day for submarine action, with enough ripple upon the
surface to make us difficult to detect, and yet smooth enough to give me
a clear view. Each of my three periscopes had an angle of sixty degrees
so that between them I commanded a complete semi-circle of the horizon.
Two British cruisers were steaming north from the Thames within half a
mile of me. I could easily have cut them off and attacked them had I
allowed myself to be diverted from my great plan. Farther south a
destroyer was passing westwards to Sheerness. A dozen small steamers
were moving about. None of these were worthy of my notice. Great
countries are not provisioned by small steamers. I kept the engines
running at the lowest pace which would hold our position under water,
and, moving slowly across the estuary, I waited for what must assuredly
come.
I had not long to wait. Shortly after one o'clock I perceived in the
periscope a cloud of smoke to the south. Half an hour later a large
steamer raised her hull, making for the mouth of the Thames. I ordered
Vornal to stand by the starboard torpedo-tube, having the other also
loaded in case of a miss. Then I advanced slowly, for though the steamer
was going very swiftly we could easily cut her off. Presently I laid the
_Iota_ in a position near which she must pass, and would very gladly have
lain to, but could not for fear of rising to the surface. I therefore
steered out in the direction from which she was coming. She was a very
large ship, fifteen thousand tons at the least, painted black above and
red below, with two cream-coloured funnels. She lay so low in the water
that it was clear she had a full cargo. At her bows were a cluster of
men, some of them looking, I dare say, for the first time at the mother
country. How little could they have guessed the welcome that was
awaiting them!
On she came with the great plumes of smoke floating from her funnels, and
two white waves foaming from her cut-water. She was within a quarter of
a mile. My moment had arrived. I signalled full speed ahead and steered
straight for her course. My timing was exact. At a hundred yards I gave
the signal, and heard the clank and swish of the discharge. At the same
instant I put the helm hard down and flew off at an angle. There was a
terrific lurch, which came from the distant explosion. For a moment we
were almost upon our side. Then, after staggering and trembling, the
_Iota_ came on an even keel. I stopped the engines, brought her to the
surface, and opened the conning-tower, while all my excited crew came
crowding to the hatch to know what had happened.
The ship lay within two hundred yards of us, and it was easy to see that
she had her death-blow. She was already settling down by the stern.
There was a sound of shouting and people were running wildly about her
decks. Her name was visible, the _Adela_, of London, bound, as we
afterwards learned, from New Zealand with frozen mutton. Strange as it
may seem to you, the notion of a submarine had never even now occurred to
her people, and all were convinced that they had struck a floating mine.
The starboard quarter had been blown in by the explosion, and the ship
was sinking rapidly. Their discipline was admirable. We saw boat after
boat slip down crowded with people as swiftly and quietly as if it were
part of their daily drill. And suddenly, as one of the boats lay off
waiting for the others, they caught a glimpse for the first time of my
conning-tower so close to them. I saw them shouting and pointing, while
the men in the other boats got up to have a better look at us. For my
part, I cared nothing, for I took it for granted that they already knew
that a submarine had destroyed them. One of them clambered back into the
sinking ship. I was sure that he was about to send a wireless message as
to our presence. It mattered nothing, since, in any case, it must be
known; otherwise I could easily have brought him down with a rifle. As
it was, I waved my hand to them, and they waved back to me. War is too
big a thing to leave room for personal ill-feeling, but it must be
remorseless all the same.
I was still looking at the sinking _Adela_ when Vornal, who was beside
me, gave a sudden cry of warning and surprise, gripping me by the
shoulder and turning my head. There behind us, coming up the fairway,
was a huge black vessel with black funnels, flying the well-known house-
flag of the P. and O. Company. She was not a mile distant, and I
calculated in an instant that even if she had seen us she would not have
time to turn and get away before we could reach her. We went straight
for her, therefore, keeping awash just as we were. They saw the sinking
vessel in front of them and that little dark speck moving over the
surface, and they suddenly understood their danger. I saw a number of
men rush to the bows, and there was a rattle of rifle-fire. Two bullets
were flattened upon our four-inch armour. You might as well try to stop
a charging bull with paper pellets as the _Iota_ with rifle-fire. I had
learned my lesson from the _Adela_, and this time I had the torpedo
discharged at a safer distance--two hundred and fifty yards. We caught
her amidships and the explosion was tremendous, but we were well outside
its area. She sank almost instantaneously. I am sorry for her people,
of whom I hear that more than two hundred, including seventy Lascars and
forty passengers, were drowned. Yes, I am sorry for them. But when I
think of the huge floating granary that went to the bottom, I rejoice as
a man does who has carried out that which he plans.
It was a bad afternoon that for the P. and O. Company. The second ship
which we destroyed was, as we have since learned, the _Moldavia_, of
fifteen thousand tons, one of their finest vessels; but about half-past
three we blew up the _Cusco_, of eight thousand, of the same line, also
from Eastern ports, and laden with corn. Why she came on in face of the
wireless messages which must have warned her of danger, I cannot imagine.
The other two steamers which we blew up that day, the _Maid of Athens_
(Robson Line) and the _Cormorant_, were neither of them provided with
apparatus, and came blindly to their destruction. Both were small boats
of from five thousand to seven thousand tons. In the case of the second,
I had to rise to the surface and fire six twelve-pound shells under her
water-line before she would sink. In each case the crew took to the
boats, and so far as I know no casualties occurred.
After that no more steamers came along, nor did I expect them. Warnings
must by this time have been flying in all directions. But we had no
reason to be dissatisfied with our first day. Between the Maplin Sands
and the Nore we had sunk five ships of a total tonnage of about fifty
thousand tons. Already the London markets would begin to feel the pinch.
And Lloyd's--poor old Lloyd's--what a demented state it would be in! I
could imagine the London evening papers and the howling in Fleet Street.
We saw the result of our actions, for it was quite laughable to see the
torpedo-boats buzzing like angry wasps out of Sheerness in the evening.
They were darting in every direction across the estuary, and the
aeroplanes and hydroplanes were like flights of crows, black dots against
the red western sky. They quartered the whole river mouth, until they
discovered us at last. Some sharp-sighted fellow with a telescope on
board of a destroyer got a sight of our periscope, and came for us full
speed. No doubt he would very gladly have rammed us, even if it had
meant his own destruction, but that was not part of our programme at all.
I sank her and ran her east-south-east with an occasional rise. Finally
we brought her to, not very far from the Kentish coast, and the search-
lights of our pursuers were far on the western skyline. There we lay
quietly all night, for a submarine at night is nothing more than a very
third-rate surface torpedo-boat. Besides, we were all weary and needed
rest. Do not forget, you captains of men, when you grease and trim your
pumps and compressors and rotators, that the human machine needs some
tending also.
I had put up the wireless mast above the conning-tower, and had no
difficulty in calling up Captain Stephan. He was lying, he said, off
Ventnor and had been unable to reach his station, on account of engine
trouble, which he had now set right. Next morning he proposed to block
the Southampton approach. He had destroyed one large Indian boat on his
way down Channel. We exchanged good wishes. Like myself, he needed
rest. I was up at four in the morning, however, and called all hands to
overhaul the boat. She was somewhat up by the head, owing to the forward
torpedoes having been used, so we trimmed her by opening the forward
compensating tank, admitting as much water as the torpedoes had weighed.
We also overhauled the starboard air-compressor and one of the periscope
motors which had been jarred by the shock of the first explosion. We had
hardly got ourselves shipshape when the morning dawned.
I have no doubt that a good many ships which had taken refuge in the
French ports at the first alarm had run across and got safely up the
river in the night. Of course I could have attacked them, but I do not
care to take risks--and there are always risks for a submarine at night.
But one had miscalculated his time, and there she was, just abreast of
Warden Point, when the daylight disclosed her to us. In an instant we
were after her. It was a near thing, for she was a flier, and could do
two miles to our one; but we just reached her as she went swashing by.
She saw us at the last moment, for I attacked her awash, since otherwise
we could not have had the pace to reach her. She swung away and the
first torpedo missed, but the second took her full under the counter.
Heavens, what a smash! The whole stern seemed to go aloft. I drew off
and watched her sink. She went down in seven minutes, leaving her masts
and funnels over the water and a cluster of her people holding on to
them. She was the _Virginia_, of the Bibby Line--twelve thousand
tons--and laden, like the others, with foodstuffs from the East. The
whole surface of the sea was covered with the floating grain. "John Bull
will have to take up a hole or two of his belt if this goes on," said
Vornal, as we watched the scene.
And it was at that moment that the very worst danger occurred that could
befall us. I tremble now when I think how our glorious voyage might have
been nipped in the bud. I had freed the hatch of my tower, and was
looking at the boats of the _Virginia_ with Vornal near me, when there
was a swish and a terrific splash in the water beside us, which covered
us both with spray. We looked up, and you can imagine our feelings when
we saw an aeroplane hovering a few hundred feet above us like a hawk.
With its silencer, it was perfectly noiseless, and had its bomb not
fallen into the sea we should never have known what had destroyed us. She
was circling round in the hope of dropping a second one, but we shoved on
all speed ahead, crammed down the rudders, and vanished into the side of
a roller. I kept the deflection indicator falling until I had put fifty
good feet of water between the aeroplane and ourselves, for I knew well
how deeply they can see under the surface. However, we soon threw her
off our track, and when we came to the surface near Margate there was no
sign of her, unless she was one of several which we saw hovering over
Herne Bay.
There was not a ship in the offing save a few small coasters and little
thousand-ton steamers, which were beneath my notice. For several hours I
lay submerged with a blank periscope. Then I had an inspiration. Orders
had been marconied to every foodship to lie in French waters and dash
across after dark. I was as sure of it as if they had been recorded in
our own receiver. Well, if they were there, that was where I should be
also. I blew out the tanks and rose, for there was no sign of any
warship near. They had some good system of signalling from the shore,
however, for I had not got to the North Foreland before three destroyers
came foaming after me, all converging from different directions. They
had about as good a chance of catching me as three spaniels would have of
overtaking a porpoise. Out of pure bravado--I know it was very wrong--I
waited until they were actually within gunshot. Then I sank and we saw
each other no more.
It is, as I have said, a shallow sandy coast, and submarine navigation is
very difficult. The worst mishap that can befall a boat is to bury its
nose in the side of a sand-drift and be held there. Such an accident
might have been the end of our boat, though with our Fleuss cylinders and
electric lamps we should have found no difficulty in getting out at the
air-lock and in walking ashore across the bed of the ocean. As it was,
however, I was able, thanks to our excellent charts, to keep the channel
and so to gain the open straits. There we rose about midday, but,
observing a hydroplane at no great distance, we sank again for half an
hour. When we came up for the second time, all was peaceful around us,
and the English coast was lining the whole western horizon. We kept
outside the Goodwins and straight down Channel until we saw a line of
black dots in front of us, which I knew to be the Dover-Calais torpedo-
boat cordon. When two miles distant we dived and came up again seven
miles to the south-west, without one of them dreaming that we had been
within thirty feet of their keels.
When we rose, a large steamer flying the German flag was within half a
mile of us. It was the North German Lloyd _Altona_, from New York to
Bremen. I raised our whole hull and dipped our flag to her. It was
amusing to see the amazement of her people at what they must have
regarded as our unparalleled impudence in those English-swept waters.
They cheered us heartily, and the tricolour flag was dipped in greeting
as they went roaring past us. Then I stood in to the French coast.
It was exactly as I had expected. There were three great British
steamers lying at anchor in Boulogne outer harbour. They were the
_Caesar_, the _King of the East_, and the _Pathfinder_, none less than
ten thousand tons. I suppose they thought they were safe in French
waters, but what did I care about three-mile limits and international
law! The view of my Government was that England was blockaded, food
contraband, and vessels carrying it to be destroyed. The lawyers could
argue about it afterwards. My business was to starve the enemy any way I
could. Within an hour the three ships were under the waves and the
_Iota_ was streaming down the Picardy coast, looking for fresh victims.
The Channel was covered with English torpedo-boats buzzing and whirling
like a cloud of midges. How they thought they could hurt me I cannot
imagine, unless by accident I were to come up underneath one of them.
More dangerous were the aeroplanes which circled here and there.
The water being calm, I had several times to descend as deep as a hundred
feet before I was sure that I was out of their sight. After I had blown
up the three ships at Boulogne I saw two aeroplanes flying down Channel,
and I knew that they would head off any vessels which were coming up.
There was one very large white steamer lying off Havre, but she steamed
west before I could reach her. I dare say Stephan or one of the others
would get her before long. But those infernal aeroplanes spoiled our
sport for that day. Not another steamer did I see, save the never-ending
torpedo-boats. I consoled myself with the reflection, however, that no
food was passing me on its way to London. That was what I was there for,
after all. If I could do it without spending my torpedoes, all the
better. Up to date I had fired ten of them and sunk nine steamers, so I
had not wasted my weapons. That night I came back to the Kent coast and
lay upon the bottom in shallow water near Dungeness.
We were all trimmed and ready at the first break of day, for I expected
to catch some ships which had tried to make the Thames in the darkness
and had miscalculated their time. Sure enough, there was a great steamer
coming up Channel and flying the American flag. It was all the same to
me what flag she flew so long as she was engaged in conveying contraband
of war to the British Isles. There were no torpedo-boats about at the
moment, so I ran out on the surface and fired a shot across her bows. She
seemed inclined to go on so I put a second one just above her water-line
on her port bow. She stopped then and a very angry man began to
gesticulate from the bridge. I ran the _Iota_ almost alongside.
"Are you the captain?" I asked.
"What the--" I won't attempt to reproduce his language.
"You have food-stuffs on board?" I said.
"It's an American ship, you blind beetle!" he cried. "Can't you see the
flag? It's the _Vermondia_, of Boston."
"Sorry, Captain," I answered. "I have really no time for words. Those
shots of mine will bring the torpedo-boats, and I dare say at this very
moment your wireless is making trouble for me. Get your people into the
boats."
I had to show him I was not bluffing, so I drew off and began putting
shells into him just on the water-line. When I had knocked six holes in
it he was very busy on his boats. I fired twenty shots altogether, and
no torpedo was needed, for she was lying over with a terrible list to
port, and presently came right on to her side. There she lay for two or
three minutes before she foundered. There were eight boats crammed with
people lying round her when she went down. I believe everybody was
saved, but I could not wait to inquire. From all quarters the poor old
panting, useless war-vessels were hurrying. I filled my tanks, ran her
bows under, and came up fifteen miles to the south. Of course, I knew
there would be a big row afterwards--as there was--but that did not help
the starving crowds round the London bakers, who only saved their skins,
poor devils, by explaining to the mob that they had nothing to bake.
By this time I was becoming rather anxious, as you can imagine, to know
what was going on in the world and what England was thinking about it
all. I ran alongside a fishing-boat, therefore, and ordered them to give
up their papers. Unfortunately they had none, except a rag of an evening
paper, which was full of nothing but betting news. In a second attempt I
came alongside a small yachting party from Eastbourne, who were
frightened to death at our sudden appearance out of the depths. From
them we were lucky enough to get the London _Courier_ of that very
morning.
It was interesting reading--so interesting that I had to announce it all
to the crew. Of course, you know the British style of headline, which
gives you all the news at a glance. It seemed to me that the whole paper
was headlines, it was in such a state of excitement. Hardly a word about
me and my flotilla. We were on the second page. The first one began
something like this:--