The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-13

 again during the Swedish wars. understood what the Americans call team work.
 Lieutenant stein, tried and proved in more than one engagement-he had begun his service together with me when the U-53 was put into commission and had been on all our long cruises-looke after the depth steering apparatus l could build on him as on rock; he kept the or dered depth to 8 hair, come storm or surge. Beside him stood the chief engineer, his sharp eye on every complicated detail of the machinery.
 And the men! Every one in his place, everyone burning with the desire to do his utmost. It was a crew any commander might envy.
 The humming motors drove us on steadily toward the unsuspicious enemy. The destroyer turned to- ward the north. I altered our course so that we should meet her almost at right angles. It was still too soon to shoot, for we were nearly three miles away. This distance was cut down rapidly, however, for the destroyer increased her speed Fires At s,25o feet.
 kept the periscope out of sight except for brief seconds eThese were tense moments.
 The men below, their ears to the speaking tubes leading to the tower, listened for orders.
 At 4:20 D. m. l fired my fastest and strongest torpedo at distance of 1000 meters. We were so near the surface that t broke the water and travelled for considerable dis tance in full sight. That was danger ous. If the opponent had kept a sharp watch and had any kind of luck he could not help seeing it. sharp turn ana we should become the pursued instead Of the pursuers. And the depth charges were mighty dangerous and mighty unpleasant.
 There was no time to be lost. pulled in the periscope, had our course materially changed and we dived to fifty meters to escape the enemy bombs. At top speed the U-53 quivering from end to end, darted away.
 Close the water tight compart- ment! Get the emergency lights ready!'
 The compartment doors slid shut and every compartment became, in a manner of speaking, little sub marine for itself. Thus it1would be possible if anything happened to us, at least to bring the ship up to the surface agaln.
 Men Hurled Against Walls. The chief engineer, to be sure, no longer had control of all the me- chanism, but he knew from long ex- perience that we could depend or every man to do what was necessary. And from the tower we still had the important equipment in our hands Suddenly heavy detonation broke the silence. Nobody who has not eX- perienced it can conceive its vio- lence. The untried men in the crew tumbled against the walls, their eyes staring at this new horror.
 The veteran head pilot, utterly un- moved, looked at his stop watch made a rapid mental calculation and announced laconically;
 "Forty-nine seconds, equivalent to range of 960 meters" The men cheered
 We've got him. Hurrah.'
 Not so fast" l called down to them, That may have been depth charge. The time was right, but you never can tell"
 The U-53 sped on toward the west. If the enemy was still untouched. he would have more trouble in following our oil trail into the face of the set ting sun. We made it still more difficult by frequent changes of course.
 Second Explosion n Mystery.
 Suddenly. full fifteen minutes after the first shot, another terrific explosion.
 We had missed. The first explosion was not our torpedo, after all, but a depth bomb And now the second one: The enemy was on our heels. It was fine prospect for us in that clear sea.
 But the minutes passed and noth- ing further happened. After waiting ten minutes l could stand it no long CT. l wanted to see what was hap pening.
 Cautiously we rose near the sur face. The periscope disclosed no en- cmy-nothing but sea an sky. searched the horizon carefully once more, then we came to the surface Still nothing to see. We turned squarely about and went back to- ward the place where we had fired the torpedo.
 No we were not being followed. l There. ahead of us, a vast field or wreckage; a quarter of a mile across, d great spot of oil stretching over the sea, and, strewn about in 1t, boards. pieces of spars and other ob- jccts. with men clinging to them. In