CHAPTER IV
SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTH SEA
The _Dewey_ was off! Shortly after midnight the little craft got underway, with her nose pointed out of the harbor.
"I guess it's 'so long U.S.A.' this time," confided Jack to his chum,as they stood together, aft the conning tower.
"Gee, I'm glad we're off!" answered Ted. "I only hope we are goingover there with the rest of the boys."
Although they had yet to learn officially their destination, theBrighton boys, together with other members of the crew of the _Dewey_,took it for granted they now were on their way to Europe to join thegreat American fleet and battle with the Imperial German Navy for themastery of the sea. It had been noised about ever since theirenlistment that Uncle Sam's submarine fleet was soon to be sentabroad.
"Going to fight the U-boat snakes with made-in-America snakes!" wasthe way Bill Witt had sized up, the situation one evening when he andthe Brighton recruits had been discussing the likelihood of theirgetting out on the firing line at an early date.
Jovial Bill Witt had proved such a capital good fellow that Jack andTed had taken a great liking to him. The three boys were great palsby this time and were always together in their leisure moments.Temperamental Jean Cartier, the smiling little Frenchman who hadshipped aboard the _Dewey_ as chief commissary steward, very oftenjoined their circle and spun the boys stories of that dear Franceand his home near Marseilles.
To-night it was different. There was no levity. Every man seemed tosense the situation and stood to his post of duty grimly conscious ofthe serious business upon which he had embarked. Through the minds ofthe lads flitted visions of home and campus.
Jack, dreaming of good old Brighton, was stirred out of his reverieby his chum.
"Do you suppose we will go all the way over under our own power, orwill we be towed?" Ted was asking.
"Haven't the least doubt but that we'll stand on our own sea legs,"replied Jack. "Don't you remember how we read in the papers earlyin the war of a bunch of submarines put together in the St. LawrenceRiver going all the way across to Gibraltar and thence through theMediterranean to the Dardanelles under their own power?"
Ted did remember, now that it had been called to his mind. It hadgripped their imagination at the time; it seemed such a wonderfulthing, the fact that submarines small enough to be carried on thedecks of huge liners had been able to cross the Atlantic alone andunaided. They had been still further amazed by the feats of theGerman undersea cargo carrier Deutschland that had made the trip toAmerica and back, and the U-53 that suddenly popped into Newport onesummer afternoon.
The night dragged along. Now that they were fairly off, Jack and Tedpreferred not to sleep, but rather to keep tabs on the maneuvers ofthe American fleet. The sea was calm and the _Dewey_ cruised on thesurface, with her hatches open. The boys were able to stretchthemselves in a promenade on the aft deck and found the night airinvigorating as they speculated together on their mission.
They had soon to find out something of the number and character ofwarships in the fleet of which the _Dewey_ was a unit. As daybreakcame stealing up over the horizon they looked about them to discernmany other warships all about them. Far to port, strung out insingle file about a half mile apart, were three huge liners thatthey took to be troopships. Deployed around them were destroyers---fourof them---riding like a protecting body guard. Bobbing about atintervals in the maritime procession were other submarines, theirconning towers silhouetted against the dim skyline.
Relieved of duty, Jack and Ted went below and turned in for a two-hoursleep. When they climbed up through the forward hatch again afterbreakfast it was to find the sun shining bright and the fleet movingmajestically eastward.
Chief Gunner's Mate Mike Mowrey confided to them that the _Dewey_was, indeed, bound for European waters. Lieutenant McClure had openedhis sealed orders and learned that he was to report to the Vice-Admiralin the North Sea. Word had been passed around to the ship's officersand they in turn were "tipping off" their men. The _Dewey_ was strippedfor action and was to assist the destroyers in defense of the transportsin the event of an attack.
The first day out was spent in drills and target practice. Late inthe afternoon a huge warship was sighted dead ahead and for a timethere was a bit of anxious waiting aboard the _Dewey_. While it wasgenerally known that the German high seas fleet was bottled up in theKiel Canal, there was always a chance of running into a stray raider.But very shortly the oncoming vessel broke out a flutter of flags,indicating that she was a French cruiser, and exchanged salutationswith the commander of the American fleet.
The men of the _Dewey_ soon learned that the troopships which theywere escorting carried a number of regiments of marines and severaldetachments of U.S. Regulars bound for France. Because the submarineswere slower than either the transports or the destroyers, the fleetmade slow progress.
They had been at sea over a week and were entering the war zone when,late one afternoon, there came a sharp cry from the lookout in the_Dewey's_ deck steering station.
"Periscope two points off the starboard!"
Instantly an alarm to general quarters was sounded. Jack and Ted,detailed in the same gun crew, had just come on duty at the forwardgun. The _Dewey's_ wireless was flashing the news to the rest of thefleet.
The destroyers drew in closer to the troopships and began immediatelybelching forth dense black clouds of smoke under forced draft that theboys divined instantly as the smoke screens used so effectively as acurtain to blind the eyes of the U-boats.
Turning her nose outward from the hidden transports the _Dewey_ drewaway in a wide sweeping circle to starboard.
"All hands below!" came the order. Immediately the deck guns were madefast and the crew scrambled down through the hatches. In a few minutes,driving ahead at full speed, the _Dewey_ was submerged until only herperiscopes showed.
All at once the crew heard a shout from the conning tower.
"There she is!" yelled Lieutenant McClure, as he stood with his eyesglued to the periscope glass.
"U-boat driving straight ahead at the smoke curtain. Port the helm!"he commanded.
The _Dewey_ came around sharp and, in response to the guidance of hercommander, began to ascend.
Having executed a flank movement, the _Dewey_ now was endeavoring toengineer a surprise attack on the German submarine from the rear. Toall intents, the German commander had not yet noted the approachingAmerican submersible. He was going after the transports full tilt,hoping to bore through the destroyers' smoke curtain and torpedo oneof the Yankee fleet.
Quickly the _Dewey_ dived up out of the water, the hatches were thrownopen and the gun crews swarmed on deck, carrying shells for theirguns. Jack and Ted followed Mike Mowrey on deck and dropped intoposition behind "Roosey." Gazing ahead they could make out the Germanperiscope and its foamy trail.
"Fire on that periscope," ordered Lieutenant McClure.
The U-boat was not more than nine hundred yards away, according to the_Dewey's_ range-finder, and apparently yet unconscious of the proximityof the American submarine. In a moment the gun was loaded and readyfor firing.
"Bang!" she spoke, and then every eye followed the shot. CommanderMcClure had jumped up on the conning tower and was hugging the periscopepole. There was a moment's silence before he spoke.
"A little short, boys," he called. "Elevate just a little more---you'venearly got the range."
Again the gun crew leaped into action.
"Hurry, boys! he sees us now and is beginning to submerge!" yelled theyoung lieutenant as he followed the U-boat through his glasses.
Again "Roosey" spoke, and this time with an emphatic "crack" that bodedill for any luckless human who might get within the line of itsscreaming shell fire.
"O-o-o-oh, great!" cried Lieutenant McClure an instant later as hepeered more intently through his glasses.
Of a sudden the periscope disappeared from the crest of the sea asthough wiped out complet
ely by the explosion of the _Dewey's_ shell.
"No doubt of it, boys; you ripped off that periscope," announcedMcClure, with an air of finality.
At their commander's words the gun crew burst into cheers. Thesubmersible's wireless was singing out a message of good cheer tothe American fleet. It was only too evident that the enemy U-boat hadbeen crippled and put completely to rout by the daring maneuvers anddeadly gunfire of the _Dewey_.
"Who said the Yanks couldn't stop their pesky undersea wasps?" chatteredBill Witt joyously. "If they just let us loose long enough we'll show'em how to kill poison with poison."
Mike Mowrey was in great glee.
"Just like a grasshopper begging for mercy on a bass hook," he saidjauntily, imitating with a crook of his finger the disappearingperiscope.
Soon the fleet was off Cape Clear on the southernmost point of theIrish coast and very shortly headed well into the English Channel.Now every few hours the American warships were speaking one or otherof the English and French patrol ships. Great was the joy of theboys aboard the _Dewey_ when first they beheld an American destroyerout on the firing line.
"Union Jack and French tricolor look pretty good; but none of themmakes a fellow's blood tingle like the Stars and Stripes; eh, chum?"queried Jack, as he surveyed an American destroyer dashing along infine fettle. And Ted heartily agreed.
Off Falmouth, the transports, accompanied by three of the Americandestroyers and two English "limeys "---as the British destroyers areknown in the slang of the sea---slipped off silently into the twilight.The American infantry and marines were to be landed "somewhere inFrance." Jack and Ted viewed the departure with mingled pride andregret.
"Reckon they will be in the trenches before long," ventured Ted.
"Frisking bean balls at the Fritzes," snapped Bill Witt with a chuckleas he joined his mates.
And now the submarine fleet continued on its way into the North Sea.An American destroyer, two English "limeys" and a French vessel ofthe same type were to escort the Yankee subs the rest of the way.By morning the _Dewey_ had slipped through the Strait of Dover andemerged at last into the North Sea---the field of her future activities!
There, in due time, the subs reported to the American admiral. Withoutany delay they were detailed for duty in the vast arena stretchingdown the Strait of Dover northward to the Norwegian coast---fromWilhelmshaven to the east coast of England and Scotland.
Provisioned and refueled after an inspection and test of her engines,the _Dewey_ lost no time in getting out on the firing line. Londonpapers, brought on board while the Yankee submersible rested in theEnglish naval station at Chatham, told of a daring raid by Germanlight cruisers on the east coast of England only the night before.Eluding the allied patrol ships, the raiders had slipped through theentente lines and bombarded a number of coast towns, escaping finallyin a running fight with English cruisers.
"That was before we got over here," said Bill Witt with a show of ironyas he read the meager dispatch in the London Times. "Wait till weYanks meet up with the Huns!"
An opportunity came shortly. One night, little more than a week afterthe _Dewey_ had put out into the North Sea, she ran plumb into a hugewarship. The little submarine had taken a position about twenty milesdirectly west of the great German stronghold at Heligoland in a lanelikely to be traveled by any outcoming warships.
Executive Officer Cleary, alone in the conning tower, had suddenlybeen apprised of the approach of the vessel by a message from thewireless room. The _Dewey_ was floating in twenty feet of water withonly her periscopes, protruding above the surface. Hardly had he gazedinto the glass before he made out dimly the outlines of the approachingvessel.
At once the crew was sounded to quarters.
"German raider!" the muffled cry ran through the ship.