A SUCCESSFUL RAID
Without pausing to learn the effect of the first shot, Captain
Nicholson sent the submarine below with a lurch, ordered the helm
hard a-starboard and made for mid-channel, where he knew the
second first-class cruiser lay at anchor, stern to and nosing the
strong ebb-tide.
All members of the crew, as well as Frank and Jack, were
jubilant. The men insisted that they had heard a roar that meant
the explosion of the cruiser, though this was highly improbable.
Jack and Frank had heard nothing, and they turned to Captain
Nicholson.
"Did you hit her, sir?" asked Jack eagerly.
"Sure," was the reply. "The shot couldn't have failed to go
home."
But the work was only one-third done, even less than that, when
the fact that the submarine had to get out of the harbor again is
considered.
The submarine, well down, now ran across the harbor at an angle,
aiming to come up to the starboard of the second cruiser.
Captain Nicholson explained his reason for doing this:
"I figure they will expect us on the side nearest the first
cruiser," he said. "Therefore, I believe we stand a fair chance
of surprising them by attacking on the starboard. At the same
time, we will have our movements masked from the third and
smaller cruiser by our second victim itself."
This sounded reasonable to the two lads, but they made no
comment.
To foster an appearance of an attack off the second cruiser's
port side, Captain Nicholson let go a decoy periscope to float
with the tide's decided sweep to the left shore and draw the fire
of the enemy in that direction.
Slowly the submarine advanced, and presently those on board could
hear the unmistakable boom of heavy guns. The ruse had
succeeded, and the cruisers and guns of the fort were aiming at
the spot in the water where the decoy periscope led them to
believe the submarine was floating.
The submarine rose so that the periscope took in the scene above
the water. Captain Nicholson, glancing through the instrument,
saw that he was at least 500 yards to the starboard of the second
cruiser. Under full speed, the Y-3 ran straight up to her
enemy's bow.
The periscope, protruding above the water, was quickly sighted by
the cruiser, but before the vessel's guns could be brought to
bear, Captain Nicholson released the second torpedo. Immediately
the Y-3 dived again.
But before the submarine had entirely disappeared under the
water, there came a loud roaring boom. The second torpedo had
gone home.
"Magazine must have gone too," said Captain Nicholson briefly.
Frank and Jack glanced curiously at the members of the crew.
Not at all nervous themselves, they were nevertheless surprised
at the apparent coolness of the British sailors.
Captain Nicholson noticed the expression on their faces, and took
time to remark:
"I suppose we should all be thinking with pity of the dead and
dying above us, but when you're a hundred feet or so below, the
shots and cries of battle are neither exciting nor gruesome."
The gallant commander was now steering a course for the third of
the Turkish cruisers.
"Guess I won't go so close this time," he remarked. "I'll fire
at longer range, so we won't have so far to go among the wreckage
of all three when we leave."
Ten minutes, later the submarine came within the desired range,
unobserved by the cruiser, which was lowering her boats to go to
the help of the others. Captain Nicholson stood with his hand on
the toggle of the firing valve, reading the range scale.
Suddenly there was a terrific shock. Every man on board the
submarine was knocked off his feet, and the submarine went
rapidly to the bottom. Jack was knocked unconscious by the
suddenness and force of the shock.
When he opened his eyes again, Frank was bending over him.
"What's the matter?" he gasped.
"Shot hit us, I guess," was Frank's calm reply.
The lad was right. Two small Turkish gunboats, whose presence in
the harbor was not known to Captain Nicholson, had approached the
scene of battle, and making out the submarine's periscope, had
opened on her with the big guns. One shot had gone true, and it
was this that had sent the Y-3 careening to the bottom.
"Are we going to sink?" asked Jack.
"We've already sunk," replied Frank. "Whether we'll get to the
surface again or not I don't know."
The lads heard the hiss of air through the vent in the manifold.
Brown was letting water into the ballast tank to keep the
submarine down. He turned as Captain Nicholson walked over to
him.
"They got our periscopes, I think," he said coolly. "But our
torpedo went just the same!"
Sure enough the tube was empty. The force of the shock had
caused Captain Nicholson to launch the torpedo before he was
ready, and there was no knowing whether it had been aimed true or
not.
The commander now took account of the casualties. One of the men
had an ugly gash across his forehead from being thrown against a
stanchion, another had a bleeding and probably broken nose.
Brown applied first aid to the injured, while Captain Nicholson
got the submarine under way again and headed for the mouth of the
harbor.
"I wonder if that last torpedo went home," said Frank. "Do you
suppose it did, captain?"
"I don't know," was the reply. "We are blind now, our periscope
having been shot away, and there is no way of telling without
going to the surface and exposing ourselves to gunfire."
"Is there any danger of our being sunk?" asked Jack.
"Danger!" he repeated. "You bet there's danger. Still, thanks
to a tight hull and a true compass, we have a fighting chance."
The Y-3 was now making ten knots, for, as Captain Nicholson said,
"there was no use wasting time and giving the enemy time to plant
a barrier."
Still five hundred yards from the sandbar which must be crossed,
there was a jar, a moaning, grinding sound, and the motors went
instantly dead. From the battery compartment there was a rush of
water into the living quarters.
It was but the work of a moment for the crew to "dog down" the
doors of that compartment to segregate the damage and prevent the
flooding of other compartments. But even then, the Y-3 was in a
bad way, and all on board realized it.
"I guess we are gone this time," said Frank quietly to Jack.
"Looks like it," was Jack's cool reply. "However, while there is
life there is hope."
Captain Nicholson noticed the look of anxiety on the lads' faces.
"Don't you worry," he said cheerily. "We'll get out of here
yet."
But now the deadliest foe of the submarine was at work--chlorine
gas. The action of the salt water on the sulphuric acid
of the battery cells was generating it with fatal quickness.
Already the boys could feel a deadly burning sensation in their
throats and noses.
Fifteen minutes of that atmosphere would have left all on board
the submarine gasping and stifling sixty feet below the fresh air
that meant life. There was but one thing to do--come to the
surface and run for it in the face of the fort.
Captain Nicholson realized that it would be the end if the upper
exhaust of No. 3 cylinder failed now, for with the electric
engines gone, running on the surface with the Diesels was the
only hope. He acted on the instant.
The submarine rose rapidly to the surface, and when well awash,
the engines were started at full speed. The hatches were opened
and the ventilating fans started, blowing out the gases and
letting in the cold, damp air. All on board drew a breath of
this invigorating air, and then Captain Nicholson turned his
attention to escaping from beneath the big guns of the fort.
From his place in the conning tower he cold plainly see the
activity of the fort when the lookout made out the submarine.
Now the two lads, at a sign from the commander, joined him.
Glancing in the direction he pointed, they made out the fighting
tops of the first two cruisers, victims of the submarine's daring
raid, just reaching out of the water. The third cruiser was
afloat, but from her heavy list to starboard, it was plain that
she was badly damaged and sinking fast.
The fort was getting the range now, and shells fell all around
the Y-3. One struck the water nearby, hurling water over the
conning tower and drenching the three who stood there.
"Well," said Captain Nicholson, "they may get us, but we got
three of them."
"And there is some satisfaction in that, anyhow," said Frank.
"You bet there is," Jack agreed.
The submarine was halfway across the bar, and had not been hit,
and every instant meant that much more chance for life. The
helmsman stuck nobly to his post, head down, and without a look
at the fort. The submarine shook and trembled with the vibrations
of the hard-pushed engines, straining to get the submarine to
deep water.
The gallant lads in the engine-room were doing their best. A
shell from long range, with most of its force expended, glanced
off the port bow of the submarine, carrying away the towing
pennant. The nose of the Y-3 ducked under a bit, but came up
serenely in half a second.
The commander of the vessel, perceiving deep water ahead, encouraged
the helmsman with a cry. Already the vessel was almost over the bar.
The fire from the fort was decreasing. Only the longer range guns
could come into play now.
Looking back, the lads saw two destroyers racing in the wake of
the submarine, preceded by a small gunboat.
The first shells of the gunboat whizzed by the submarine.
Captain Nicholson slammed down the hatch.
"Water armor for us!" he cried.
A moment later the submarine was on the safe haven of the bottom
with 100 feet of solid protecting water between it and hostile
shells.
"That was pretty ticklish," said Frank, drawing a breath when
they were out of reach of the gunboat's fire.
"It was," was the commander's response, "and we are not safe yet
by any means."
"Why--?" began Frank.
"We can't go up again now, can we?" demanded Captain Nicholson.
"We shall have to stay down here until they believe we have
escaped. Then we will rise and try to sneak out."
"But surely we are safe enough down here."
"Don't you believe it. They'll trawl for us all day; but luckily
for us they don't know we have lost our batteries, so they'll
probably search over a wide area, and we run that much more
chance of not being discovered."
"But surely no shell would reach us here," said Frank.
"No," replied the commander grimly, "but if they discover us,
they are likely to dump a few barge loads of pig iron or
something down on us and crush our steel plating."
But the submarine was not discovered by the enemy and remained
below the water all the rest of the day "went to sleep on the
bottom," as the phrase goes. And that is what literally was
done, for all on board were tired out.
An hour after sunset, the Y-3 came once more to the surface.
There was no sign of an enemy. The sky was still banked with
heavy clouds, and there was a choppy sea running.
Captain Nicholson started to run for safety at full speed ahead.
Having no batteries for submerged running now, the Y-3 had to
remain on top of the water, or else sink to the bottom and lie
still; and for this reason Captain Nicholson kept prepared for a
quick submersion.
Mines were the worst dangers the Y-3 bad to encounter now, and a
careful watch was kept and the speed of the vessel reduced.
Twice the vessel was picked up by the searchlight on the fort,
and each time submerged.
But the engines stood up well, and at last Captain Nicholson said
quietly to the two lads:
"Well, we're safe at last."
"Good," said Frank, "but I wouldn't have missed this experience
for a fortune."
"Nor I," declared Frank.
"You take my advice," said Captain Nicholson, as he headed the
Y-3 for the spot where they had left the Sylph almost 40 hours
before, "and stay on the top. Don't spend any more time on a
submarine than you have to."