At 1 p.m. a deputation of the crew came aft, and in whispered voices implored me to surface the boat and make a last effort on the surface. A muffled report, as our implacable enemy dropped a depth–charge somewhere astern of us, added point to the conversation, and showed me that our appearance on the surface could have but one end.
At 3 p.m. the second coxswain, who was working the hydroplanes, fell off his stool in a dead faint.
At 3.30 p.m. the supreme crisis was reached: two more men fainted, and I realized that if I did not surface at once I might find the crew incapable of starting the Diesels.
At the order "Surface," a feeble cheer came from the men.
We surfaced, and I dragged myself–up to the conning tower. Luckily we started the Diesels with ease, and in a few minutes gusts of beautiful air were circulating through the boat.
Meanwhile, what of the enemy? I had half expected a shell as soon as we came up, and it was with great anxiety that I looked round. We had been slightly favoured by fortune in that the only thing in sight was a trawler away on the port beam. It was our hunter.
I trimmed right down, hoping to avoid being seen, as it was essential to stay on the surface and get some amperes into the battery. I also altered course away from him.
It was about 5 p.m. that I saw two trawlers ahead, one on each bow. By this time the boat's crew had quite recovered, but I did not wish to dive, as the battery was still pitiably low. I gradually altered course to north–east, but after half an hour's run I almost ran on top of a group of patrols in the dusk.
I crash–dived, and they must have seen me go down, as a few minutes later the boat was violently shaken by a depth–charge.
We were at twenty metres, still diving at the time. I consulted the chart, but could find no bottoming ground within fifty miles, a distance which was quite beyond my powers.
At 11 p.m. I simply had to come up again and get a charge on the batteries.
From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., at regular half–hourly intervals, a depth–charge had gone off somewhere within a radius of two miles of me. Needless to say, I was only crawling along at about one knot and altering course frequently. What was so terrible was the patent fact that the patrols in this area had evidently got some device which enabled them to keep in continual touch with me to a certain extent.
These monotonous and regular depth–charges seemed to say: "We know, Oh! U–boat, that we are somewhere near you, and here is a depth–charge just to tell you that we haven't lost you yet."[18]
As an hour had elapsed since the last depth–charge, I felt fairly happy at coming up, and on making the surface I was delighted to find a pitch–black night and a considerable sea. From 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. I actually had three hours of peace, and in this period I managed to cram a considerable amount of stuff into the batteries. The densities were rising nicely and all seemed well, when I did what I now see was a very foolish thing.
I made my 1 a.m. wireless report to Nordreich, in which I requested orders at 3 a.m. and reported my position, together with the fact that I had been badly hunted.
In twenty–five minutes they were on me again! I had most idiotically assumed that the English had no directional wireless in these parts. They have. They've got everything that they have ever tried up there; it was concentrated in that infernal Fair Island Channel.
I was only saved by seeing a destroyer coming straight at me, silhouetted against, the low–lying crescent of a new moon. When I dived she was about six hundred metres away. As I have confessed to doing a foolish thing, I give myself the pleasure of recording a cleverer move on my part. I anticipated depth–charge attack as a matter of course, but instead of going down to twenty–five metres, I kept her at twelve.
The depth–charges came all right, seven smashing explosions, but, as I had calculated, they were set to go off at about thirty metres, and so were well below me.
The boat was thrown bodily up by one, and I think the top of the conning tower must have broken surface, but there was little danger of this being seen in the prevailing water conditions.
* * * * *
