The Bergall cleared the area on surface. The large tanker turned out to be the Nippo Maro. The Bergall cruised south along the coast of Sarawak and passed through the Karimata Strait on 1 November. On the 2nd of November, off the south coast of Borneo, she came across a small sailboat loaded with cargo. After the submarine stopped to investigate, the boat s native crew leapt into the water on the opposite side of the sailboat.
History is a dull thing when it treats of facts and dates and ignores personalities.
The first patrol of the Bergall was concluded without other events worth recording except for an exciting few minutes in Lombok Strait when a patrol boat nearly succeeded in wedging the American submarine between itself and Noessa Besar, but did succeed only in lighting the night sky with automatic fire which fell far short. The Fremantle rendezvous was made the morning of 8 November and the patrol was declared successful by a wide margin. Due to a positively marvelous excess of lung power which the officer possessed no one had ever failed to get the word, but the same voice amplified by the announcing system and tinged with the excitement which one feels in a new job proved terrorizing and brought a good percentage of the crew out of their bunks into the control room. It also cured at least one case of constipation.