Sea-Hounds

ing on the bridge of one ship and watching other ships-and especially

aces, and only the silhouettes of ships of war that notch the far horizon. Battleship, battle cruiser, light cruiser, destroyer, sloop, trawler, and all the other kinds and classes of patrol craft-each h

was only by accident that the course she was steering to join up with a couple of other ships of her flotilla on some kind of "hunting" stunt took her across that of the convoy, and passed it in inspiring panoramic review before our eyes. From dusky blurs of smoke trailing low along the horizon, ship after ship-f

ct it was the living, breathing symbol of the relentless progress of America's mighty effort, a tangible sign of the fact that her aid to the Allies would n

a long scrutiny of the advancing lines of ships, "as though there'd be jolly ne

et presented by the sides of those placidly ploughing ships, "that is, assuming that they get there safely. But they're only

all the same, it looks to me as though that bunch of troopers would offer

a bearing on a destroyer zigzagging jauntily with h

ot seen the ins and outs of it would be in a position to appreciate-the effectiveness of the whole anti-submarine scheme, and, especially, what almost complete protection thoroughly up-to-the-minute screening-with adequate destroyers and other light craft-really affords. As a mat

iring two or three torpedoes from, say, just about wh

," was the reply; "only, if there is any Fritz still in the ga

happen to hi

-- answered, after ordering a point or two alteration

ut there's one thing I can assure you he wouldn't get-and that's back to his base. There may be two or three bearings from which one of these big convoys appears to present a mark as wide and unbroken as the m

asked somewhat incredulously, for I had somehow come to regard Fritz, th

e was a shortage of every kind of screening craft, things were different. Fritz's moral was better then than it is now, and we didn't have the means of shaking it that we have piled up since. At our first convoys, straggling and little schooled in looking after themselves, he used to take a chance as often as not, if he happened to sight them; but even then he rarely got back to tell what ha

ship he went after all right-which was his reward one way; and that we then sunk him-which was his reward the o

k up the thread of his yarn. This is the story that young Sub-Lieutenant P--, R.N.R., told me the while we leaned on the lee rail of the bridge and watched the passing of those miles-long lines of p

as the senior officer, being in command. None of the ships-they were mostly slow freighters-had had much convoy experience to speak of at the time, and we were having our hands full all the way keeping them in any kind of formation. They seemed to be getting worse rather than better in this respect as we got into the waters where U-boat attacks might be ex

ck to prod her on and do what could be done in the way of screening her. She still continued to lose distance, however, so that, at no

oin the convoy. We left an armed trawler to do what it could for the loitering Plato, and started off at the best rate the weather w

red until their rather poor apology for a Christmas dinner was out of the way, and we were headed back to join the convoy. Then they went to it with a will, and for the next hour or more fragments of Yuletide songs came drifting back to my cabin to mingle with a number of other things conspiring to disturb the forty winks I was trying to snatch while the going was good. After a while, it appears, having run through their repertoire of Christmas songs, they started in on Easter ones, 'Bein' that they was mo' or less on the same subject,' as one of

to recognise the Amperi in the centre of the leading line. We were just comforting each other with the assurance that it was getting too rough for a U-boat to run a torpedo with any chance of finding its mark, when a huge spout of water jumped skyward right in the

oin me with all dispatch.' This, of course, we had already started to do, though the wind and sea were knocking a good many knots off our best speed.

yards of the now heavily heeling ship, with the intention of proceeding on down, to the leeward of her to the aid of two of her boats, when we sighted three or four feet of periscope sticking out of the water, one point on the starboard bow and at a distance of

st it, two charges were released together. As they were both set for the same depth it is probable that the one staggeringly powerful explosion we felt was caused by their detonating simultaneously. The shock was as solid as though we had struck a rock, and I could feel a distinct lift to the ship before the impact of it. There was something so substantially satisfying about tha

rt of way, like a half-stunned porpoise floundering away from the 'boil' of a depth-ch

having been detailed for boat work in connection with picking up the survivors from the Amperi-but that didn't bother a good deal in a short and sweet practice like this one. The ship was bobbing like a cork from the seas, in addition

d not see anyone on the bridge at this moment, and if there had been he must certainly have been killed. The fact that the submarine seemed to have been blown to the surface by the force of our exploding depth-charges rather than to have come up voluntarily, may account for the fact that no head was poked above the bridge rail as she emerg

er shell. Before I had a chance to see what had blown up, however, we had rammed her, and whatever damage that shot had caused dissolved in the chaos of what

mit of the last kick of the engines. Just before the moment of impact the screws were stopped dead, so as to sink the bow and reduce the chance of riding over the U-boat and rolling it under her stem, as has occasionally happened, instead of cutting it straight in two. The j

er, was the section which was cut off on my side-port-and the even cross-section of it that gaped up at me was very little different from that I once saw when one of our own submarines was being sawed through amidships in connection with some repairs. Even the plating did not appear to be bent or buckled. The impression that ring of shining clean-cloven stee

and switchboards, fittings of brass and steel, and what I took to be three torpedoes-one on the port side, and two, one above the other, on the starboard. The most arresting thing of all, however, was the figure of a solitary man, the only one, strange to say, that

helm put a-starboard, and as we turned, the 4-inch gun and my 12-pounder opened up together. My very first round, fired over the port quarter, hit and exploded fairly inside the gaping end of the section, right where I had last seen the man with upraised hands. That, and the two or three smashing hits by the 4-inch gun, finished the job. A whirlpool in the sea marked the rush of water into the severed end, and this section-for all th

ng with this, however, and made port, with the survivors of the Amperi aboard, without difficulty. There we soon had the-well, not unmixedly unpleasant-news that the Whack's wounds were of a nature somewhat comparable to what the Tommy in France calls a 'Blighty.' Without having any

, took a long look through his glasses at the last of the now r

that show. Although the Whack got all the kudos for the sinking, there is a decided possibility that a bit of a stunt the

peed for the point he reckoned the submarine would be most likely to be encountered. He reports that he had the good fortune to hit it, while it was still submerged, and that

kily, for his claim, however, the bows of the Smack, when she came to be docked, did not show sufficient evidences of having been in heavy collision to warrant the conclusion that the U-boat had been enough damaged to have gone to the surface from that cause alone. Under th

hy Fritz didn't douse his periscope and try to dive deeper when he saw the Whack rounding toward him, if it wasn't because there was something pretty radically wrong with

ed with Fritz," it is the fine sporting spirit in which they invariably insist in sharing the credit of an achievement with every other officer, and man, and ship that has in any way figured in the action. It was the