Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-18

up behind her which plotted her out
 before We could distinguish details.
 but she altered her course toward land
 just before going oI5t of sight.
 The most hopeful scheme seemed to
 be to get straight out seaward, in hope
 of slipping awav unohserved in the
 mist. It was painfully slow work; ages
 passed, and we began to cheer up
 thinking all was well. Then suddenly
 we spotted her. She had a1rerru her
 course again and was Eow criving up
 at great ra te oil a course that looked
 as if she meant ramming.
 'sWhen vshe was a short half mile
 away I made out the blurred outline Of
 her. guns and Immediately afterward
 saw them swinging forwardi It is an
 iInwritten law of the sea never to train
 guns on warships of a nation with
 whom one is at peace-fer obvious
 reasons. Therefore her action in train
 ing her guns on us at this moment
 seemed to prove conclusively that she
 was hostile and about to open fire. T3
 stay on the surface seemed certain
 death, either from gfinfire or rarnr1ins.
 so T I=took the 1 to chance for life
 under water.
 to dive were rather exciting. When I
 tried to close the coming tower lid l
 found to my horror that it had jam
 med. By cHlc feel of it I fancy a piece
 oHnterbaiance weight. The water was
 half way up the coming tower NO
 time to do anything, so I started down
 again with the idea of closing the lower door. I had barely got to the edge of the hole when the water canlr
 The first wave hit the lid a great smack and luckily broke the obstruc-
 tfon and closed the lid with a bang. although an avalanche of water got into the boat first.
 r T found things pretty serious in side, for as soon as the pressure came on the leaks had opened up, and the
 boat had taken charge of itself, sink ing like a stone. The water inside had an agle that it was impossible to stand
 without holding on to something. Tt was out of the question to re-
 main submerged, the question was get back to the surface at all. The boat had gone right down until stie touched bottom with her tail. As she did so the door of the after compart- the boat had stayed at that depth 1t would have gone. But immediately on touching the bottom she com
 menced to rise again, because the sufficient to give her a slight buoy ancy as Soon as her downward mo- menturr1 was stopped
 There was a tremendous lot of free
 water in the interior. Some of the
 men were literally washed away from their stations. Those who were wash sd away stayed as near their billets as possible. ready to dive back and work their valves if it required it. They might have been doing q routine prac- ence it made
 We were now rising very slowly, when suddenly the port motor blew out, water having reached it and short circuited it. This happened at 45 feet. then stopped and cornnenced sinking again slowly. The dial pointer crept
 round to 4s feet. stopped then went 10 4s, then 49 1-2. stopped there for a long time and then started to rise again.
 "Ti1is was the critical moment. If
 she had gone down instead Of up nothing could have saved us. Once she made up her mind to come up, she came with a rush We emerged ready to torpedo the German cruiser if WI, could and the men standing ready to swim for it as soon as we had fired When we broke surface there was the ship, lying motion1ess. 400 yards away a beautiful shot. But it had stoib-x at first sight that she was a Dutch : man. Her ensign was ctrarly visible and her silhouette, which I now saw for the first time. was unrnfstakatle My boat was practically in sink Lutch cruiser for help Boats were sent over with the utmost pronaptitud-. and we shortly found ourselves aboard the Noord Brabant. of the Dutch ro-Hl navy, stationed at the He1der. We were received and ltreated most warm haartedis I went up on the bridge plunge. she went dewn a bugle Erabaf1t saluted her while she died. |