The Adventures of the U-202 Part 2

The danger had pa.s.sed. Normal conditions at night could again be resumed. But before the morning set in, we again experienced all kinds of adventures. The night was as if bewitched. There was no sleep worth mentioning. I had hardly, towards ten o'clock, reached my comfortable little nest where the sailor Schultes, our own considerate "cup-bearer,"

had spread on my miniature writing-desk the most tempting delicacies of preserves and fruit together with a bottle of claret, when a whistle sounded in the speaking-tube on the wall right close to my head:

"Whee-e!" it shrieked, high, penetrating and alarming.

I jumped up, pulled out the stopper and put in the mouth-piece.

"h.e.l.lo!"

"Two points from starboard a white light!"

I grabbed my cap and gloves and rushed sternward through the deck officer's room, petty officer's room, and crew-room, each one narrower than the other.

"Look out, the commander!" they shouted to one another, and pulled in their legs so that I could get by.

"Ouch!" I b.u.mped my head hard against the stand of an electric lamp. I rubbed the sore spot as I hurried ahead, while I took an oath to myself that the lamp should be moved at the first possible opportunity. I hurried through the "Centrale," up the narrow stairway. Then I reached my place.

"Where?"

"There!" Lieutenant Groning, who was on guard, pointed out. "About three points starboard!"

"It is a steamer. One can already see the red side lantern. It is crossing our course."

I put my binoculars to the eye and looked for many seconds for the light. The officer on guard was right. Besides the white lantern, one could see a deep, red light. The ship therefore was traveling towards the left and would cross our course.

A narrow strip of the moon had appeared from out of the sea and was wrestling with the darkness of the night. The result was not much-the strip of the moon was too small for that-still it was not so dark as before.

"Don't let it come too close to us!" I ordered. "And get clear in right time. We must not under any circ.u.mstances be seen by it, because then they would soon know in England from which direction to expect us. Now nearly every steamer has a wireless."

Groning changed the course to port until he had the steamer completely to the left.

"Too bad, we can't take it with us," he said.

"No, you know, for a night attack this is not the right place. Here so many neutral steamers travel, and an error can easily be made."

It was shortly after ten o'clock. At eleven-twenty, twelve forty, one-ten, three-fifteen, and five o'clock I again heard the whistling "Whee-e!" in the speaking-tube by my bunk. Each time I had to jump out of some dream, realize within a fraction of a second that my presence was desired up-stairs, grab my cap and gloves, and rush through the boat's long body up to the tower, not without several times b.u.mping into the aforementioned and often d.a.m.ned electric lamp.

After five o'clock in the morning I remained on deck, because dawn would soon break with its treacherous light. The commander's post is in the tower at such a time because, just as easily as one perceives in the pale gray light a ship, one is also visible from the steamer, which could cause many unpleasant surprises if the two ships are not very cordial towards each other-especially disagreeable to us because a submarine is, as our name indicates, below the water, and the smallest fragment of a sh.e.l.l can badly damage our heel of Achilles, the diving machinery, so that we would be unable again to get into a position of safety beneath the surface.

Shortly before six o'clock I had the entire crew at the diving stations.

Each took his place, ready at a given command to open or shut the valve, crank, or bolt of which he had charge. Only the cook had no special duty besides his own. He remained with the electric cooking apparatus provided in the galley and had no other job besides taking care of our bodily comfort. Now he was, in conformity with his duty, busy making coffee as was proper at that time of day.

A fine, strong smell of coffee percolated through the whole ship, which proved to be a great stimulant to our taut nerves and our empty stomachs.

I have to deviate a little from the subject for the purpose of asking if my readers understand me. Is it above all plain, explicit, and clear why I give so much s.p.a.ce to a discussion of the nerves when I speak about us, U-boat men, and so often refer to them? The nerves are in time of peace the Alpha and Omega for a U-boat officer. How much more so when we are at war! The nerves to us mean power to act, decision, strength, will, and perseverance. The nerves are valuable and to keep them in good condition is of the greatest importance and an obligation and duty during a voyage.

There we sit hour after hour in the conning tower. Beneath is the most complicated mechanism the genius of man has ever created. And all around there are the most craftily constructed instruments for the purpose of destroying that which cost so much labor to create. Mines, nets, explosives, sh.e.l.ls, and sharp keels are our enemies, which, at any moment, may send us high in the air or hundreds of meters into the ocean. Everywhere perils lurk. The whole sea is a powder barrel.

For all this there is only one remedy-nerves!

To make the right decision at the right moment is the first and last of U-boat science. One glance must be enough to determine the position. In the same second a decision must be made, and the commands carried out. A moment's hesitation may be fatal.

I can give an example of this on the very morning I speak of.

It was three minutes after six o'clock, and within about half an hour the sun would rise, but the sea and the sky still floated together in the colorless drab of early dawn and permitted one only to imagine, not see, that part.i.tion wall, the horizon.

Unceasingly our binoculars pierced the gray dusk of daybreak. Suddenly a shiver went through my body when-only a second immovable and in intense suspense-a dark shadow within range of the spy-gla.s.s made me jump. The shadow grew and became larger, like a giant on the horizon-one mast; one, two, three, four funnels-a destroyer.

A quick command-I leap down into the tower. The water rushes into the diving tanks. The conning tower covers slam tight behind me-and the agony which follows tries our patience, while we count seconds with watches in hand until the tanks are filled, and the boat slips below the sea.

Never in my life did a second seem so long to me. The destroyer, which is not more than two thousand meters distant from us, has, of course, seen us, and is speeding for us as fast as her forty thousand horse power can drive her. From the guns mounted on her bow flash one shot after another aimed to destroy us.

Good G.o.d! If he only does not hit! Just one little hit, and we are lost!

Already the water splashes on the outside of the conning tower up to the gla.s.s windows through which I see the dark ghost, streaking straight for us. It is terrifying to hear the sh.e.l.ls bursting all around us in the water. It sounds like a triphammer against a steel plate, and closer and closer come the metallic crashes. The rascal is getting our range.

There-the fifth shot-the entire boat trembles-then the deceitful daylight disappears from the conning tower window. The boat obeys the diving rudder and submerges into the sea.

A reddish-yellow light shines all around us; the indicator of the manometer, which measures our depth, points to eight meters, nine meters, ten meters, twelve meters. Saved!

What a happy, unexplainable sensation to know that you are hiding deep in the infinite ocean! The heart, which had stopped beating during these long seconds because it had no time to beat, again begins its pounding.

Our boat sinks deeper and deeper. It obeys, as does a faithful horse the slightest pressure of a rider's knees, which, in this case, are the diving rudders placed in the bow and the stern. The manometer now shows twenty-four meters, twenty-six meters. I had given orders we should go down to thirty meters.

Above us we still hear the roaring and crackling in the water, as if it were in an impotent rage. I turn and smile at the mate who is standing with me in the conning tower-a happy, care-free smile. I point upwards with my thumb.

"Do you hear it? Do you hear it?"

It is an unnecessary question, of course, because he hears it as plainly as I do, and all the others aboard hear it, too. But the question can still be explained because of the tremendous strain on our nerves which has to express itself even in such a simple question.

Dear, true, splendid little boat, how one learns to love you during such trying moments and would like to pet you like a living human being for your understanding and obedience! We, here on board, all depend upon you, just as we all depend upon one another. We are chained together. We will face the dangers together and gain success.

You blond heroes who are standing down there in the bowels of the boat without knowing what is happening up in the light, but still knowing that the crucial moment has arrived-that life or death to every one depends on one man's will and one man's decision; you who, with a calm and strong feeling of duty, stick at your posts with all the strength of your bodies and souls strained to the breaking point and still keep full faith in him who is your leader, chief, and commander; you show the highest degree of bravery and self-control, you who never have a chance to see the enemy but still, with sustained calm, do your duty.

Not a word was uttered, not a sound disturbed that deadly stillness on board. One almost forgot that the men were standing with strained nerves at their posts in order to keep the wonderful mechanism running right.

One could hear the soft whirr of the dynamos and, more and more distant, the crackling of the exploding sh.e.l.ls. Suddenly even this stopped. The Britisher must have noticed that the fish had slipped out of his hand.

Shortly thereafter we heard his propellers churning the water above us.

Soon this noise died away as it had come, growing fainter and fainter in a kind of grinding whirr.

"Did you hear how he circled around over us?" I asked through the speaking tube which led down into the "Centrale."

"Certainly. That could clearly be distinguished," was the short answer.

I was pondering over what to do next. At first we had no choice but to dive at the first sight of the destroyer suddenly appearing with the break of day.

In our capacity as an undersea boat, we were now in a position to fight on equal terms, and I decided to risk a bout with him as soon as it became light enough for me to see through the periscope. The intervening time I made use of by having pa.s.sed up to me in the tower the long desired cup of morning coffee, in order to stop the tantalizing agony which the smell of the coffee had caused my empty stomach.

Thereupon we slowly climbed upwards from our safe breakfast depth of thirty meters. The higher we came-one can read on the manometer how we are ascending meter by meter-the greater became the excitement and tension. Without breathing we listened.

Slowly the boat rose. The top of the periscope would soon be thrust above the surface. My hands clasped the handle with which the well-oiled, and therefore easily movable, periscope can be turned around as quickly as lightning, in order to take a sweep around the horizon. My eye was pressed to the sight, and soon I perceived that the water was getting clearer and clearer by degrees and more transparent. I could now follow the ascent of the boat without consulting the manometer.