"Hurry, if you want to see her dive," he said.
I climbed into the after section of the turret and fastened my eye to
the periscope. Around the top of the turret was a circle of bulls'
eyes and I was conscious of the water dashing against them while
the spray washed over the glass of the periscope. The little vessel
rolled very slightly on the surface, though there was quite a bit of
sea running. I watched the horizon through the periscope and watched
for the dive, expecting a distinct sensation, but the first thing I
noticed was that even the slight roll had ceased and I was surprised to
see that the bulls' eyes were completely under water. The next thing
there was no more horizon. The periscope also was covered and we were
completely beneath the surface.
"Did it make you sick?" the commander asked, when I climbed down from
the turret, and when I told him no he was surprised, for he said most
men were made sick by their first dive.
The thing most astonishing to me about that experience was how a
submerged submarine can thread its way through a mine field. For though
the water is luminous and translucent one can hardly make out the black
hull of the boat under the turret and a mine would have to be on top
of you before you could see it. The men who watch for mines must have
a sense for them as well as particularly powerful sight.
We continued to dive until we were sixty-eight feet below the surface,
too deep to strike any mine, and there we ran tranquilly on our
electric engines, while the commander navigated the vessel and the
second in command opened champagne in the two by four mess room. After
half an hour of under-water work we came near enough the surface for
our fighting periscope to stick twenty inches out of the water and
searched the lonely horizon for a ship to attack.
It was not long before we sighted a mine trawler, steaming for the
harbor, and speeded up to overtake her.
"Pikers!" said our commander, as we circled twice around the mine
trawler; "they can't find us."
Five men on the trawler were scanning the sea with glasses, looking
for submarines. We could follow all their motions, could tell when
they thought they had found us and see their disappointment at their
mistakes, but though we were never more than five hundred yards from
them I did not think they were pikers because they did not find us. I
had tried that hunt for the tiny wave of a periscope.
"No use wasting a torpedo on those fellows," said our commander. "We
will use the gun on them."
"How far away can you use a torpedo?" I asked.
"Two hundred yards is the best distance," he said. "Never more than
five hundred. A torpedo is pure guesswork at more than five hundred
yards."
We crossed the bow of the trawler, circled around to her starboard
quarter and came to the surface, fired nine shots and submerged again
in forty-five seconds.
The prey secured, we ran submerged through the mine field and past the
net barrier to come to the surface well within the harbor and proceed
peacefully to our mooring under the shelter of the guns of the land
forts.