The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-10-23

was that?
That dark stripe over there. wasn't
that a smoke flag?
! But it's already gone, hidden be-
/ hind the back OF rising wave. rising
1 Into the dawn gray sky.
I | waited and stared through the
| glass tn my eyes ached.
There IL was again; IT was a dark
smoke f1ag---and there. lookl A mast
top, thin as a needle. but i have 1t
In my glass. and now. now, / bore
my eyes into the glass: What is 1t
! that comes out OF the veil OF waves
that dark thing over there--the smoke
above IL, four low tunnels.
Donnerwetter, It's n destroyer.
Quick Dive.
with one leap I am back in the
turret, have closed the tower hatch.
Alarm" "Submerge quickly"
''Fluten Depth rudder!" Go to TWEEN
" meters"
The commands followed one an
other as in a breath. But their ex-
cCution,
With this sea to submerge head
long is according to all experiences,
sheer insanity
Fut what will ! do?
The destroyer might have seen U.S.
already
Down We went IN as big hurry as
possible. too
Below me, in the "zentrale." the men
are working In feverish, noiseless
haste The rapidly aging vents are
open. The compressed air Kisses from
the tanks--the submerging valves are
singing IN all KEYS
7 stand with tightly squeezed lips,
gaze through tie coming tower. look
Out over the raging sea MI about us.
feverjshly lurking for the first sign
of going deeper
Rut ] Still sec our deck, again and
again wave rakes upwards
We have not another moment to
lose.
Dive deeper" is my next command,
and Roth engines extreme power
ahead"
The whole boat trem hles and shakes
under the increased engine pressure,
and makes a couple Of real Jumps; It
literally staEEers in the wild Eea-wtil
II not 90 down SOON With a sudden
terk the Deutschland darts down be-
low the wave tide and now, bending
her bow lower and lower, she rapidly
descends into the depths. The light
~ the Just dawning day disappears
from the turret windows, the man
ometer shows in quick succession two
three, six. ten meters. But the bow
bends lower and lower.
Staggering and Slipping.
We stagger. lean backwards. and
slip: we lose all foothold as the boat
jerks abruptly downward. ! manage
10 grasp the ocular part Of the perl
scope and down below IN
the "zentraie' the men are clinging
70 the hand wheels OF the depth rud-
der a few terrible seconds
pass We have not yet
realized our new situation-there fs a
violent crash. we are hurled to the
floor and everything that Is not COM
pact or nailed down 10 thrown into a
Wild hele-mele.
Recovering from the shock we f1nd
ourselves in the most extraordinary
positions; We look at one another, and
for a moment there In sullen silence:
then the first officer, Krapohl, says
! quite dryiy. We'll. so we have ar
! rived
! That breaks the aboruinahle tension.
! But we all had become quite pale.
and tried to find ourselves.
/ What had happenedY
Why this unnatural bending of the
/ boat? And why did the engines
above us rage so terrifcally that the
whole vessel roared?
But before any of US could really
I regain his perspective, our little
Klees, the chief engineer, had darted
up from his crouching position. and
with the quickness of lightning had
! ierked the engine telegraph around
/ TO halt
Suddenly there was a deep silence.
| Slowly we, gathered our limbs and
minds together and began to
ponder: What had happened?
Stood ON Its Head.
The boat had bent forward in an
angle OF thirty-six degrees and stood
on it's head. as 1t were: It's bow sat
on the seas bottom and its aft was
! violently swinging back and forth
the manometer showed depth OF
/ about fifteen meters.
j / quickly realized our situation; 1t
was nothing less than uncomfortable.
According to the map, the depth
here was thirty-one meters; with the
steep position OF the long boat the
! stern was bound to rise a consider
! able distance out OF the water, and
| thus could offer a lovely target for
| hostile destroyers. AS long as the
engines worked there was the added
| danger: When "volley OF waves
passed over us, the screws presum-
ably whipped partly into the air and
| increased our attractiveness by wild
/ sprouts and foam whirls.
This Chief Engineer Klees had inn
mediately realized, owing to the raging
| jerks of the motors, and with his pres
! ence OF mind he had averted the
greatest danger at least.
| Nevertheless, we had designated
our position by peculiar buoy. and
we expected momentarily to hear the
crashing blow OF a shell In the stern,
which was still lowering overhead.
| But everything remained quiet. The
screws could no longer betray us:
also, It probably was stiIl too dark
up there, and the destroyer. perhaps.
had enough Of It's own troubles In the
wild sea.
| 1t will be easily understood that we
nevertheless tried to extricate ourself
from this "bloedsnnig'' position. As
the boat had remained entirely intact
and had stood the terrific blow with
out any damage. all further opera
tons proceeded strictly according to
program. The aft tanks, which had
not been entirely emptied OF air, were
flooded. and thus we gradually got
the boat back into a more reasonable
position.
Swan Up and Trimmed Back.
But this does not mean that the
Deutschland promptly returned to
her horizontal bearings: indeed, she
had poked her nose too deep into the
Il ri 10 mako this p0sftinp in a hvrrx,