CHAPTER V
THE GERMAN RAIDERS
As the _Dewey_ settled into the water. Lieutenant McClure and hisexecutive officer peered intently though the periscopes, hoping tocatch sight of the unknown craft and speculating on her nationality.The sky was flecked with clouds and there was no convenient moonto aid the submarine sentinel---an ideal night for a raid! "LittleMack," as the crew had affectionately named their commander, was ina quandary as to whether the approaching vessel was friend or foe.
"We'll lie right here and watch him awhile," he told his executiveofficer. "Pretty soon he'll be close enough for us to get a lineon his silhouette."
It had been an interesting revelation to the Brighton boys soon aftertheir entry into the navy to learn that each ship was equipped with asilhouette book. By means of this it was possible to tell thevessels of one nation from another by the size and formation of theirhulls, their smokestacks and general outline. Each officer had to bethoroughly well informed on the contents of the book.
Quietly, stealthily the hidden submarine awaited the approach of heradversary, for it seemed only too certain that the ship that hadsuddenly come dashing up out of the east was out of Cuxhaven orWilhelmshaven, and had but a short time before passed under themighty German guns on Heligoland.
Chief Gunner Mowrey and his crew in the torpedo chamber forward weresignaled to "stand by the guns ready for action," which meant in thiscase the huge firing tubes and the Whitehead torpedoes. Jack and Tedfell into their places, stripped to the waist, and making sure thatthe reserve torpedoes were ready for any emergency.
By adjusting the headpiece of the ship's microphone to his ears ChiefElectrician Sammy Smith kept close tabs on the approaching vesselwith the underwater telephone. With the receivers to his hears hecould hear plainly the swish of the vessel's propeller blades as shebore down upon the floating submarine. With his reports as a basisfor their deductions, the _Dewey's_ officers were able to figure outthe position of the mystery ship and to tell accurately the distancebetween the two vessels.
"Reckon he'll be dead off our bow in a minute or so," observed Clearyas he completed another observation based on Smith's latest report.
McClure sprang again to the periscope.
"Yes, we ought to get a line on him soon enough now," was his rejoinder.
For a moment the two officers studied the haze of the night seaaround them, unable yet to discern the form of the approaching vessel.And then came a huge specter, looming up directly off the starboardquarter of the _Dewey_ in the proportions of a massive warship.
"Looks like a German cruiser," said the American lieutenant as hegripped the brass wheel of the periscope and gave himself intentlyto the task of divining the identity of the unknown ship.
Cleary was making observations at the reserve periscope, the twoofficers having plunged the conning tower of the _Dewey_ in utterdarkness that they might better observe the shadowy hulk bearingdown upon them.
"It is a German cruiser---_Plauen_ class---and coming up in a hurryat better than twenty knots," exclaimed McClure, as the outline ofthe ship was implanted clean-cut against the horizon dead ahead ofthe _Dewey_.
His hand on the firing valve, the submarine commander waited only untilthe bow of the German warship showed on the range glass of theperiscope, and then released a torpedo.
Instantly a great volume of compressed air swirled into the upper portchamber; the bowcap was opened and the missile sped on its way.
"Gee, I hope that 'moldy' lands her!" shouted Jack at the sound of thedischarged torpedo.
Although but a short time in the North Sea and just getting wellacquainted with their English cousins, the American lads were fastlearning the lingo of the deep. To every man aboard the _Dewey_ atorpedo was a "moldy," so named by the English seamen.
As the torpedo crew sprang to reload the emptied chamber the _Dewey's_diving rudders were turned, ballast was shipped and she started todive. The plunge came none too soon. A lookout on the Germancruiser, eagle-eyed about his daring venture, had noted the approachingtorpedo and sounded an alarm. At the same moment the ship's rudderwas thrown over and she swung to starboard, paralleling the positionof the _Dewey_. And just as she came around one of her big searchlightsaft flashed into life and shot its bright rays over the water. For amoment or two a finger of ghostly white shifted aimlessly to and froover the surf ace of the sea and then centered full upon thedisappearing periscope of the _Dewey_! Instantly came the boom ofthe ship's guns as they belched a salvo at the tormenting submarine.
"Missed him by inches," growled McClure after waiting long enough tobe convinced that the torpedo had sped wide of the mark.
"And he is firing with all his aft guns," added Cleary as he observedfurther the flashes of fire from the turrets of the German cruiser.
McClure signaled for the _Dewey_ to be submerged with all speed.
"He'll never get us," he announced a few seconds later as the submarinedived down out of sight.
Jack and Ted, with the rest of their crew, had by this time shuntedanother Whitehead into position, adjusted the mechanism and werestanding by awaiting developments.
"Just our luck to slip a moldy to the blooming Boche and draw a blank,"grumbled Mike Mowrey, who was mad as a hornet over the "miss."
Ted was inclined to be a bit pessimistic, too; but Jack was sure the_Dewey_ would make good on her next try. Bill Witt started to sing:"We'll hang Kaiser Bill to a sour apple tree," but got little response.The torpedo crew were glum over their failure to bag the German raidingcruiser and in no mood for singing.
"Cheer up, boys; better luck next time," called out Navigating OfficerBinns as he peered into the torpedo compartment.
All at once the boys were startled by a cry from Sammy Smith, who hadsuddenly leaped to his feet and stood swaying in the wireless room withboth microphone receivers tightly pressed to his ears. Above theclatter of the _Dewey's_ engines the gunners forward could hear theelectrician talking excitedly to Lieutenant McClure.
"Listen, listen, other ships are coming up," Smith was shouting. "Ican hear their propellers. That's the fellow we missed moving offthere on our port quarter. You can hear at least two more here in thestarboard microphone. We seem to have landed plumb in the nest of aGerman raiding party," rattled off the electrician glibly as he passedthe receivers to his commander for a verification of his report.
McClure snatched the apparatus and clamped it to his ears. For amoment he listened to the mechanical whirr of churning propellers,borne into his senses through the submarine telephone.
"Great!" he exclaimed. "Some more of the Kaiser's vaunted navy tryingto sneak away from their home base for a bit of trickery."
As he rang the engine room to shut off power, the American commanderadded, with flashing eyes:
"If we don't bring down one of these prowlers before this night is overI'll go back home and ship as deckhand on a Jersey City ferry-boat."
Suspended fifty feet below the surface of the sea, the _Dewey_ floatedlike a cork in a huge basin while her officers took further observationson the movements of the German warships above them. Now that theirpresence was known the American officers realized they would beaccorded a stiff reception when they next went "up top.".
"I'm going to try it," announced McClure shortly. "We'll take a chanceand pay our respects to one of their tubs."
The _Dewey_ forthwith began to rise. At the direction of the navigatingofficer two hundred pounds of ballast were expelled. Tilting fore andaft like a rocking horse, the submersible responded gradually to thelightening process until at last the depth dial showed only a marginof several feet needed to lift the eyes of the periscopes above thewaves. The little steel-encased clock in the conning tower showed tenminutes past one---just about the right time for a night raiding partyto be getting under way.
"Guess we'll lie here and wait for them to come along," whisperedMcClure to Cleary as the periscopes popped up out of the depths intothe night gloom.
<
br /> "We seem to be right in their path and may be able to get one of themas he shoots across our bow," added Cleary as he took another telephonereport from the wireless room.
According to Sammy Smith's observations there were two vessels comingup to starboard, while the third, the one the _Dewey_ had missed, wasdim in the port microphone and almost out of range. Engines shut off,the submarine lay entirely concealed, awaiting the coming of her prey.It was McClure's idea to lie perfectly still in the water until one ofthe enemy warships swung right into the range glass of the _Dewey_ andthen give it a stab of steel---a sting in the dark from a hidden serpent!
The waiting moments seemed like hours. Gradually, however, the leaderof the silent ships drew nearer. There was no mistaking the telltalereports in the wireless room. Basing his calculations on the chiefelectrician's reports, McClure figured the leader of the oncomingsquadron to be now not more than half a mile away and moving steadilyforward toward the desired range---a dead line on the bow of the _Dewey_.
Executive Officer Cleary at the reserve periscope was first to detectthe mass of steel looming up out of the darkness. Lieutenant McClureswung his periscope several degrees to starboard and drew a bead on theGerman warship an instant later.
"We'll drop this chap just as he shoots across our bow," declared the_Dewey's_ commander.
Five hundred yards away came the speeding warship. It was closeenough now for the American officers to make out her outlines indetail and to satisfy themselves that this was another member of theraiding party out of the great German naval base in back of Heligoland.
"All right, here goes," shouted the doughty Yankee skipper a momentlater as the German cruiser drew up until her bow edged into the circlethat McClure had marked off on the periscope as the exact spot onwhich to aim his fire.
Swish! went the torpedo as it shot from the bow of the _Dewey_ andstraightened out in the water on its foamy trail, cutting throughthe sea like a huge swordfish.
It took only a moment---an interval of time during which the torpedofrom the American submarine and the German cruiser seemed irresistiblydrawn toward each other. And then came the crash---the impact of thetorpedo's war-nose against the steel side of the cruiser, thedetonation of the powerful explosive, the rending of the German hull.
And then, loud enough for his crew forward to hear his words, McClurecalled out:
"A perfect hit, boys; torpedo landed plumb in the engine room of a bigGerman cruiser."
A great cheer resounded through the hull of the American undersea craftas the good news was borne to the torpedo crew forward and to theengine room aft.
Keeping his eyes to the periscope, McClure beheld the most spectacularpicture that had yet been glimpsed through the eye of the Americansubmarine. The torpedo had struck squarely abaft the ship's magazineand wrecked her completely. The night was painted a lurid glow as atitanic explosion shook the sea and a mass of yellow flame completelyenveloped the doomed warship from stem to stern.
"Look, she is going down by the stern," called out Officer Cleary ashe took one last squint at the _Dewey's_ quarry just before thestricken warship slipped away into the depths.
The jubilation of the crew knew no bounds. The men were wild with joyover their success. Jack and Chief Gunner Mowrey were "mitting" eachother like a prize fighter and his manager after a big fight, whileTed and Bill Witt were clawing each other like a pair of wild men.
Through the main periscope Commander McClure was noting the deathstruggle of the German cruiser, when Executive Officer Cleary, swingingthe reserve periscope around to scan the horizon aft the _Dewey_,suddenly called out sharply:
"Submerge, quick! Right here abaft our conning tower to starboardcomes a destroyer. She is aimed directly at us and almost on top ofus. Hurry, or we are going to be run down!"