Evening star., 1933-02-12

The officer lowered his glasses to stare ~
Shorty. "A funnel?" He returned the binocu-
lars to his eyes. MY 0odl She's sinkingi
=. No-she's submerging! She's disguised
submarine!" He sprang to the pilot house 70
jiggle the annunciators full speed aheadl
Shorty ran to his station at the 3-inch gun.
In a fash he understood everything The
strange craft was none other than the elusive
and dreaded U-5o. In her clever disguise no
wonder she had managed to hide so success
fully! With her coming tower removed, ie
would be comparatively easy to construct the
hull of yawl, steel covered with wood, on her
deck. The forward mast was undoubtedly .
disguised periscope: the after mast funnel
for the fumes Of her petrol motors!
Don't fire yet; watch the buoys," shousea
the skipper grimly.
Almost as he spoke there was a sudden buTse
OF smoke and fire from one Of the wooden buoys
attached to the nearest net-then from another
buoy-and so on until dozen flaming buoys
were moving rapidly out to sea! The vre
hawser supporting the net held up by invisible
glass buoys fitted with metal clips that had
opened when pressure was exerted on them
remained behind while the net with the wooden
buoys was towed seaward by the fleeing sub
marine. OF course the U-boat knew about the
net; but there was chance Of cutting through
with her propellers and, in the darkness, escap-
that a lanyard attached to the hawser had
pulled free, exposing the chemical contents OF
the buoy to the water which produced dense
smoke and flame making them a brilliant tar.
get for the enemy!-a recent invention of the
allies. r-.s,ss
Stand by to drop depth chargeln cried the
captain. The subchaser was now rapidly over
taking the flaming target. Drop depth
charge" There was q splash-then after an
fnt,t lAA1 H.
the great charge Of T reached the proper
depth, followed by quick flash of sheet light.
ming in water
Inc sunchaser swerved sharply to port and
making quick turn, passed over the marked
spot again where the remaining two buoys were
ominously motionless! Let go depth charger.
shouted the skipper. Splash-another silence
-agsln an explosion that lifted the chaser's
stern out of the sea-another gigantic upheaval
OF water, this time raining bits of wreckage.
The skipper put his engine room telegraph NJ
STOP ana gave final orders: Sparks, report the
attack to the admiralty. Shorty put out the
listening device and see whether there's any
sound down there. The rest of you men sts6o
by"
NO sound OF submarine engines was picked
up by the submerged hydrophone. When dav-
oreak came however, there was no longer the
Iaintest doubt that on the sea floor beneath Law
the doomed U-boat whose oil. like the b,ool, "a
stricken beast, continued to well up in Rreat
ar ouooies There was no hope now of picking
up any survivors. In such lake of oil there
was not enough buoyancy to support a man
Tor even moment
very quietly the skipper ordered a marking
ouoy dropped overheard, and ringing I'D the
engines, started the little warship back To
Cragsnaven to await directions from the adj
miralty.
A FTER breakfast, Shorty sought out the
skipper in the pilot house. "I'd like to ash
leave to go ashore, sir" he mumbled.
Shorty said the skipper, you're something
of hero. You'll probably be decorated and
get real leave-to go to London or Paris.
OF course, you can go ashore but I'd like to
do something else for you. Can't you think or
anything better to ask?"
Shorty considered. Then he threw a o,ack
glance toward Quartermaster Smith. who was
standing by in awed silence "I'd like to nave
Smith row me over in the dinghy and stand by
to row me back" stated Shorty.
The skipper looked up in surprise Then he
smiled. Certainly, Shorty. Quartermaster.
for today you'll take orders from Gunner's Mate
Short!'
Copyright. 1882