The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-23

ence was sheer insanity But what
+ was I to do? The destroyer might
+ have seen us already.
/ Down we must, in as big a hurry as
possible, too.
/ : Below me in the '.zentrale'' the men
are working in feverish, noiseless
opened, the compre ssed air misses
1 from the tanks-the submerging
/ valves are singing in all keys
1 stand with tightly squeezed lips
gaze thru the coming tower lookout
over the raging sea all about US. fe-
verishly looking for the first sign of
going deeper
But 1 still see our deck again and
again a wave rakes US upwards
We have not another moment to
mand. and Both engines extreme
power ahead"
Down to Bottom.
The whole boat trembles and shakes
under the increased engine pressure
and makes a couple OF real Jumps;
/ it literally staggers in the wild sea
+ Will il not go down pretty soon2 With
I a sudden Jerk the Deutschland darts
down below the wave tide, and now
pushing her bow lower and lower.
she rapidly descends into the depths.
/ The light of the just dawning day dis
! appears from the turret windows, the
manOmeter shows in quick succession
Wo-three-six-teL meters But the
boat bends lower and lower. We stag
/ ger, lean backwards and slip: We lose
all foothoId as the boat jerks abrupt
I " downward-I manage to grasp the
I ocular part of the periscope-and
down below. in the "Zentrale' the
men are clinging to the hand wheels
l of the depth rudder-a few terrible
seconds pass
We have not yet realized our stu
ation-there rs a violent crash, we
are hurled to the floor and everything
that is not compact or nailed down
is thrown into a wild pellmell.
Recovering from the shock, we find
| ourselves IT. the most extraordinary
| positions; we look at one another. and
for a moment there is sullen silence,
then the first officer, Krapopl, says
quite dryly:
We'll so we have arrived"
That breaks the abominable tension
But we all had become quite pale
and tried to find ourselves
What had happened
Nose in the Mud.
Why this unnatural bending of the
boat-and why did the engines above
US rage so terrifically that the whole
vessel roared.
But before any of US could really
/ regain his perspective, our little
| KIeeS the chief engineer, had darted
up from his crouching position and
with the quickness of lightning had
jerked the engine telegraph around to
| halt"
Suddenly there was a deep silence.
Slowly we gathered our limbs and
our mind together and began to pom
der. What had happened?
The boat had bent forward in an
angle of thirty-six degrees and stood
I on it's head, as it were, its bow sat
/ on the seas bottom and its aft was
violently swinging back and forth;
the manometer showed a depth of
about fifteen meters.
] 1 quickly realized our situation; it
was nothing less than comfortable.
According to the masts the depth
here was thirty-Cne meters, with the
steep position of the long boat, the
stern was bound to rise a considera BILE
distance out of the water and thus
could offer a lovely target for hostile
destroyers. As long as the engines
worked there was this added danger.
When valley of waves passed
over us, the screws presumably
whipped partly into the air and in
creased our attractiveness by vile
sprouts and foam whirls.
kIees the Hero.
This. Chief Engineer KIees had i'm
mediately realized owing to the rag
ing jerks of the motors and with his
presence Of mind he had averted the
greatest danger at least
nevertheless we had designated our
expected momentarily to hear the
crashing blow of she'll in the stern
which was still lowering overhead.
But everything remained quiet. The
screams could no longer betray us;
also it probably was still too dark UP
there and the destroyer perhaps had
enough of its own troubles in the
wild sea.
1t will be easily understood that we
nevertheless tried to extricate our
selves from this ''bloedsinnig'' position
As the boat had remained entirely in
tact and had stood the terrific blow
without any damage, all further oper-
atoms 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 more reasonable po-
sition
But this does not mean that the
Deutschland promptly returned to her
horizontal bearings, indeed, she had
poked her nose too deep into the dirt
to make this possible in a hurry But
now we were at least fully submerged
and had chance to go calmly to
work.
The furthermOst ballast tanks were
relieved of part of their water and
subsequently we Unanswered around
with the trimtanksT until the PROV
got loose from the ground. These we
soon began to swim up but were
promptly compelled to trim back" in
order to counterfeit the immediate
tendency toward swinging on the part
of the vessels aft. which had become
too heavy After a while the eol1i-
librium of weight had been re-esta b.
lished and the Deutschland was once
more firmly in my hands.
Tanks Not Filled.
Now there was time to consider
what it was that could have caused
the sudden "bucking" Of our usually