Sea-Hounds

AT vers

e squat brown cabins where the peat fires smouldered, and along the straggling stone wall which crowned the ridge the swaying heads of home-returning cows showed inter

were lounging at ease about the stern of the first of a "cluster" of three of these-like a sheaf of bright multi-coloured arrows the trim craft looked, with the level rays of the setting

e no one present from my part of the country, no immediate opportunity to break in presented itself. Equally an outsider was I when the flow of discussio

other didn't think she ought to be thinking of marriage just yet-after that I didn't feel quite so bad over not having had a chance to open one of these "woolly" correspondences. There was some solace, too, in hearing a pink-cheeked young ex-bank clerk tell how the "abdominal bandage" (they name

en they began to discuss, or rather to wrangle over, for discuss is far too polite a term, the theory of the game and to grow red in the face over such esoterics (or "inside stuff," to put it in "Fanese") as how and when a "squeeze" ought to be pulled off, I showed them the bulbous first joint of the little finger of my right hand-which there is no other way of acquiring than by the repeated telescopings of many season

with a number of my old team mates of the Montana League. Deep in reminiscence of those good old days, I quite forgot my subtle scheme of using baseball as a stalking-horse for destroyer yarns, when the arrival of some callers from a British sloop lying a mile or two farther down the harbour recalled it to me. They had been in the Moonflower, the man next me said, when she put a U-boat out of business not long before, and one of them-he had some sort of decoration for his part in the show-spun a cracking good yarn about it if you got him started. This latter I managed to do by asking him how it chanced that the Moonflower

nch of 'cans' round his restin'-place. An' if the luck's with us, we gets him; an' if the luck's with him, we don't. If we crack open his shell, down he goes; if we jest start him leakin', up he comes. Only dif'rence is that, in one case, it's all hands down, and in t'other, all hands up-'Kamerad!' In both cases, no fight, no run for our money. Now when we first come over, an' 'fore we'd put the fear o' God into Fritzie's heart, he wasn't above takin' a chance at a come-back now an' again. Then there was occas'nal moments of ple'surabl' excitement, like the time when"-and he went on to tell of how an enterprising U-boat commander slipped a slug into the Courser abreast her after superstructure, and "beat it" off before that stricken destroyer had a chance to retaliate. Only the fact that,

e which revealed him as a signalman even before one

putting up a fight for his life-yes, even for giving a real run for the money-well, all I can say is that if you'd been out on the Sherill about three weeks ago, you wouldn't be making that complaint about one particular Fritz at least. If going eighteen hours, with two

follow what is going on. "Most of the bunch have heard all they want to hear of it already," the lad replied with a laugh when I asked him to tell me the story; "and, besides, a more or less long-winded yarn of the kind I suppose you want would tire 'em to tea

rewriting an old college football song (he had been in his freshman year at Michigan when America came into the war) to fit destroyer work in the North Atlantic. I found him stuck at the end of the second line of the first verse,

g signalman of U.S.S. Sherill told me, the while the red squares of the cottagers' windows blinked blandly along the bank in the l

, when the McSmall made a signal that she had sighted a submarine on the starboard bow of the convoy, distant about five miles, and immediately stood off to the west to see if anything like a strafe could be started. She was more than hull-down on the horizon when I saw, by the way the angle of her funnels was changing, that she was man?uvring to shake loose a few 'cans' into the oil-slick she had run into, but I remember distinctly that

irst 'cans,' however, one of the quartermasters reported sighting a periscope on the port quarter of the convoy, about five hundred yards distant, and headed away

been inclined to believe that the Fritz we were now starting to make the acquaintance of was the same one which the McSmall was still assiduously hunting some miles off to the westward. It was a mighty smart piece

few hundred yards beyond that a slow undulant upcoiling of currents marked, faintly but unmistakably, the under-water progress of the game we were after. There was no oil-slick, understand, because an uninjured submarine only leaves that behind-except through carelessness-when it dives aft

n a keen eye-it takes instinct, mixed with a lot of common sense. It's a common thing to say of a successful look-out that he has a 'quick nose for submarines.' The expression is used more or less figuratively, of

was still only on the way down, and it was no surprise when, a few seconds later, the

een could be plainly made out. The for'ard end was rather more sharply defined than the after, probably because the swirl from the propellers made uneven refraction about the tail. It was d

g of high explosives that it was. For a minute or two the little old Sherill, dancing down the up-tossed peaks of the explosions, jolted along like the canoe you are dragging over a 'corduroyed' portage. Then the going grew smooth again, and under a hard-over right rudder we turned back rejoicing to gather in the sheaves. Yes, it

hat of the submarine, coincided with the tell-tale swirl of the latter we had followed, while the round patches of spreading foam made the dizzily dancing buoys temporarily superfluous as markers of the spots

vital thing it told us was that-strange as it seemed-our under-water bombardment had not sent the U-boat to the bottom, nor even injured it sufficiently to compel it to come to the surface. But that it was injured, and probably fairly badly, was proved by the wake of oil and bubbles. Don't ever let any one delude you with that yarn about the way Fritz sends up oil and bubbles to baffle pursuit. There may be circumstances under which he could work that particular brand of foxiness with profit, but if there is one place where you could be sure he wo

right-angled turn to the left had taken him quite clear of the last of the charges, which had only been thrown away. Wounded and winged

her indication that all was not well with him. Holding on past the 'bubble fount,' we passed over the point below which the U-boat must have been moving, but now he was so much more deeply

e to guide, you approximate his speed and course from that, guess at his depth, set the charge at the corresponding depth from which you judge its explosion will do most good, and then, allowing for your own speed and course, release i

ere is to it. Success in 'can-dropping' depends about half on the skill and judgment of the man directing it, and about half on luck. Or perhaps I should say that fifty-fifty was about the way it stood when we start

ad been dropped. It was encouraging to note that both oil and bubbles were rising faster than before, but there was surprise and disappoint

ith, of course, told him we were bearing down on him, and then to start making 'woggly' zigzags. The captain was doing some deep thinkin

others, and I was just speculating if it had been a hi

nd No. 2 of the port battery got off about five rounds apiece, and when the splashes from the exploding shells had subsided Fritz had gone. It looked

e at least bleeding him hard, perhaps to death. As there was no doubt that he was still a going concern, ho

MBER OF "CANS" A

h, if the U-boat could be kept running at maximum speed, to exhaust its batteries in and force it to come to the surface for lack of power to keep going submerged. A submarine, you understand, unless it can lie on the bottom, which

ove in sight presently, accompanied by the Fanny, which was out with her on some special stunt of their own. They had an hour to spare for us, and i

come charging up his wake from astern and shy a 'can' at his tail; now one would

pool. We were always grazing one, but never quite getting it. And, believe me, the wak

s only for a few seconds though, and never long enough to offer a target for even a ranging shot. Once we trie

e we spent in keeping our quarry on the jump by every trick we knew. Then we stood away, and gave him a chance to come up and start charging on the surface. When it finally became evid

The oil-slick left behind by his wake was so heavy that, even in the failing light, it was visible for several miles. He was now making about fiv

e off-chance the captain started circling in a way that would cover a

n, of course, and you can bet it would have been a funny sight if there had only been enough light for us to see one another in. Nosing-I can use the term literally this time-slowly along, turning now to port, now to starboard, as the oil smell was strongest from this side or that, within ten minutes we picked up a slick which, even i

unning down the moon-path. He was plainly near the end of his juice, and taking every chance that offered to charge on the surface. He du

ed yards ahead and slightly on the starboard bow. Ordering the bow gun to open fire, the captain put

His conning-tower and two periscopes showed not over thirty feet from the port side as we swept by. It was too close

is course so that the wake led away straight toward the low morning sun. It was probably by accident rather than design that his now reversed course also laid his wake across some of the zigzags of his old oil-slick. At any rate

full speed. At almost the same time, the British sloop Moonflower-the same one we were talking ab

further trace of him was discovered. Even if he did not sink at once, the chances are all against his being in shape ever to get back to base. But just the same," he concluded, with a

but the tree-tops along the crest of the eastward hills were silvering in the first rays of the rising moo

e said with a grin; "we're expe