Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Read online

  CHAPTER III

  SEALED ORDERS

  Ted and Jack hastened to follow their comrades down the hatchway. Asea-gull flapping by squawked shrilly at them as the boys waited theirturn at the ladder. Instinctively they took another look around thembefore dipping into the hold of the _Dewey_. They realized that here,indeed, was the real thrill of submarining. The cap was lowered atlast and secured, and the crew hastened to their posts amid theartificial light and busy hum of the ship's interior.

  Now the Brighton boys were to learn how the _Dewey_ was to be submerged!For one thing they noted that the oil engines used for surface cruisingwere shut off and the locomotion of the vessel switched over to theelectric drive of the storage batteries. But their attention wasdirected chiefly to Navigating Officer Binns, who had taken up hisposition before a row of levers and water gauges amidships.

  "Pump three hundred pounds into No. 1," was the command given by Binns.One of the levers was thrown over, and immediately could be heard theswirling of water. The boys were unable to grasp the full meaning ofwhat was going on until Bill Witt shuffled up and said: "I'll put youfellows wise to what's going on, if you want me to."

  Ted and Jack were glad to know what it was all about and listenedattentively to the commands of the navigating officer and theinterpretations given by their new-found friend. Bill explained thatthe process of diving was called "trimming" in submarine cruising, andthat the pumping of the water being directed by Binns was done to fillthe ballast tanks, thus increasing the displacement of the _Dewey_ andcausing it to settle in the water. First one tank was filled, and thenanother, until the vessel was submerged on an even keel. This was arevelation to the boys, for they had supposed it was only necessary totilt the ship and dive just like a porpoise.

  To their great delight the recruits found that the _Dewey_, like othersubmarines built since the beginning of the great world war, wasequipped with twin periscopes, and that, furthermore, they would beallowed to watch the submersion of the _Dewey_ through the reserveperiscope if they so desired. Would they care to? Well, rather! Forthe next few minutes they took turn about peering into the mirrors thatreflected the whole panorama before their eyes.

  Gradually, they could see, the _Dewey_ was settling into the embraceof the sea. Now she was down until the waves rolled completely overthe deck and splashed against the conning tower. Down, down theydropped till only the periscope projected above the waves. Beforethem stretched the wide sweep of water, the ocean rising slowly butsurely to overwhelm them. One after another the waves surged by.Now the eye of the periscope was so close to the crest of the waterthat it was only a matter of another moment until they would be under.Up, up, up came the water to meet them. Ted's heart was in his mouthwhile he viewed this awesome spectacle. Then he gave way for Jack totake a squint through the tube that carried with it a last look at theworld of sunlight they were leaving. And now the eye of the periscopewas so near submersion that the swell of the waves swept over it andmomentarily blotted out the light. Then the spray dashed madly at the"eye" of the tube---and they were under!

  Down in the depths of the ocean! It was a moment to stir the pulsesof the two Brighton recruits. Wide-eyed in wonder, tense with thestrain of the experience, they stepped back from the periscope.Through Ted's mind flitted memories of Jules Verne's "Twenty ThousandLeagues Under the Sea," and he was suddenly inspired to find outwhether it was possible to glimpse any of the wonders depicted bythe writer. A peep into the tube showed only a greenish haze as therays of the sun seemed trying to follow the _Dewey_ into the depths.Against the eye of the periscope streamed a faint flicker of greenishparticles in the water that reminded the boy of myriad shooting stars.And then---nothing but a blur of black!

  "What do you know about that?" gasped Ted, turning to his old schoolpal. The boys were keyed to a high pitch by this time as a result oftheir first experience in a deep-sea dive. So tense were they withexcitement that they marveled at the care-free attitude of the crew.Some of them were humming nonchalantly; others chatting and laughingas though on an excursion on a river steamboat.

  "What do you feel like, chum?" began Ted, as the two settled into aconversation over their wonderful exploit.

  "Well, I've been up in the tower of the Woolworth Building and down ina coal mine and up in a Ferris wheel and once I had a ride with UncleJim in the cab of a locomotive---but this beats anything I ever hadanything to do with!" exclaimed Jack, all in one breath.

  Ted was gulping a bit. "I feel as though I had left my heart andstomach up there on top of the ocean," he stammered.

  Bill Witt grinned from ear to ear; the remark was reminiscent of other"rookies" and their first experiences at sea.

  "You'll probably think you've completely lost some parts of yourdepartment of internal affairs before you get rightly acquainted withyour new friend Mr. Neptune," offered Bill by way of a gentle reminder.

  So far the new members of the _Dewey's_ crew had been unaffected by theterrors of seasickness. Bill's remark drove the import of it homepretty hard. "I hope, if we are going to get it," interjected Tedphilosophically, "we get it soon and get over with it."

  They had little time to ponder over the possibilities of gastronomicdisturbances, for there was much going on that occupied their attention.The _Dewey_ was now running entirely submerged, testing out herelectric batteries.

  "How do they steer the vessel down here under the sea?" asked Jack.

  "By the gyrocompass," answered Bill Witt, pointing to where ExecutiveOfficer Binns and Commander McClure stood in the conning tower. "Weare running blind down here, except that the skipper knows from hiscompass which direction we are going, and he has charts that tell himthe depth of the sea at this point. They know the longitude andlatitude and can easily determine on their maps and charts just wherewe are."

  "How deep down can we go?" inquired Ted.

  "Most of the boats have to be tested at a depth of two hundred feetbefore they are accepted by the government from the builders," repliedBill. "But you can bet your life we don't often go down that far.When we do, the water is oozing through the thin steel hull anddropping in globules from the sides and top of the vessel. From sixtyto a hundred feet is our average plunge."

  Even at that moment the boys noticed that the _Dewey_ was "sweating"a little bit, the vaulted steel above them, coated with a compositionthat contained cork, being dotted here and there with drops of water.Jack craned his neck to look at the depth dial and noted the indicatorhand was pointing at seventy-two feet.

  Mess was served at noon while the _Dewey_ kept on her run. Coffee andbiscuits made up the frugal meal this time, the officers and crewbeing anxious to prove the submersible ready for any emergency callthat Uncle Sam might make, and not desiring to spare the men fromtheir posts longer than possible.

  All afternoon the _Dewey_ ploughed the waves, sometimes runningsubmerged, other times on the surface. About five o'clock the boysperceived the lighthouse at the bay entrance, and soon they wereback in the navy yard. Their letters home that night thrilled withaccounts of their first dive under the ocean, and in their dreamsthe boys were sharing all manner of wonderful exploits against thefoe on the boundless sea.

  For several weeks the Brighton recruits were kept busily at thebusiness of mastering submarine navigation. In the distribution ofthe crew throughout the vessel Jack and Ted found themselves assignedunder the leadership of Chief Gunner Mowrey. In turn the boys weredrilled in the forms for loading and firing torpedoes from thechambers in the bow of the boat, and in manning the four-inch gunsabove deck, as well as the anti-aircraft guns that poked their nosesstraight up in the air and sent up shells much after the fashion ofFourth of July skyrockets. The crew had pet names for their guns.The forecastle gun was nicknamed "Roosey" for Colonel Roosevelt, thegun aft was dubbed "Big Bob" in honor of "Fighting Bob" Evans ofSpanish-American War fame, while the anti-aircraft guns became"the Twins."

  "Hope we get a shot at a zepp some day soon with
one of the Twins,"sighed Jack one afternoon after the gun crew had finished peppering topieces a number of kites that had been raised as targets.

  "Yes, and I hope we get that shot at the zepp before the zepp gets oneat us," replied Ted, as he recalled the stories he had read of thesubmarines being visible while yet under water to aircraft directlyoverhead, and thus being a ready target for a sky gunner.

  Coming in the next afternoon from a run to shake down the engines, theboys on the _Dewey_ found the navy yard in the vicinity of thesubmarine fleet moorings in a commotion. Motor trucks were depositingpiles of goods near the piers which were being lightered to some unitsof the submarine fleet in motor launches. Officers were hurrying toand fro between their vessels and the shore and there was a general airof suspense that seemed to indicate early action of some kind.

  The _Dewey_ was wigwagged to take up a position near the other underseacraft that were being provisioned and fueled, and very soon supplieswere coming aboard.

  "Looks like we are going away from here," suggested Ted to his sailorcomrade.

  "It's a guess I've been making myself," answered Jack.

  Their surmises were all too true, for very soon Commander McClure, whohad been ashore for some hours now while the businesslike preparationswere in progress, came alongside in the launch of the commandant ofthe yard and called his staff of officers into executive conferencedown in the officers' quarters. The news spread quickly through the_Dewey_ as though by magic, that the submarine was due to get awayduring the night under sealed orders. A few minutes later Bill Wittconfirmed the news. He was on night watch and had heard it from theofficer of the deck.

  Under sealed orders! Where and what!