Danger! and Other Stories | Page 8

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