Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Read online

  CHAPTER VI

  RAMMED BY A DESTROYER

  It was a critical moment aboard the American submarine. Out of thedarkness the destroyer---speed king of the modern navies---had emergedjust at the moment the _Dewey_ was sending home the shot that laid lowthe German cruiser.

  Dashing along at a speed better than thirty knots an hour, the greyhoundof the Teutonic fleet was bearing down hard upon the Yankee. Evidentlythe lookout on the destroyer had marked the path of the _Dewey's_torpedo in the dim gray of the night sea, and with his skipper had senthis craft charging full tilt at the American "wasp."

  "If they get to us before we submerge we are done for," gaspedLieutenant McClure, as he bellowed orders to Navigating Officer Binnsto lower away as fast as the submerging apparatus would permit. Thenthe quick-witted commander rang the engine room full speed ahead atthe same time he threw the helm hard to port in an effort to bring hiscraft around parallel with the charging destroyer and thus make asmaller target.

  Down, down, down sank the _Dewey_ as her valves were opened and thesea surged into the ballast tanks. The periscopes had been well outof water when the destroyer had first been sighted. It was now a racebetween two cool and cunning naval officers---the German to hurl hisvessel full upon the American submarine and deal it a death blow; theAmerican skipper to outwit and outmaneuver his antagonist by puttingthe _Dewey_ down where she would be safe from the steel nose of thedestroyer.

  Although no word was spoken to the crew, they could sense the situationby the sharp commands emanating from the conning tower and the celeritywith which the navigating officer and his assistant were working theballast pumps.

  Great beads of perspiration stood out on the forehead of Officer Binnsas he stood over the array of levers and gave directions, first to shipballast in one tank, and then in another, shifting the added weightevenly so as not to disturb the equilibrium of the _Dewey_ and causeher to go hurtling to the bottom, top heavy in either bow or stern.

  Nearly two minutes were necessary to get the little undersea craftdown far enough to evade the prow of the oncoming destroyer, and eventhen the conning tower furnished a target that might be crushed by thenose of the enemy ship and precipitate an avalanche of water into thehold---with disaster for the men assembled at their posts of duty.

  "They are right on top of us now," screamed Sammy Smith as he huggedthe microphone receivers to his ears.

  If the destroyer was going to get the submarine, now was the fatalmoment!

  The _Dewey_ suddenly lunged like a great tiger leaping from the limbof a tree upon its prey. Responding to a signal from his commander,Chief Engineer Blaine had suddenly shot into the submarine's enginesthe full power of the electric storage batteries and hurled the_Dewey_ forward with a great burst of speed. There was a slim chancethat the swift-moving German warship might be sidestepped by a quickmaneuver, and the crafty McClure was leaving no deep-sea trick unturned.

  "Nice place for the Fritzes to swing overboard one of those infernaldepth bombs," muttered Bill Witt.

  A depth bomb! Jack and Ted knew all about the latest device beingemployed by the warring nations in their campaigns against submarines.Gigantic grenades, they were, carrying deadly and powerful explosivestimed to go off at any desired depth. One of them dropped from thedeck of the destroyer as it passed over the spot where the _Dewey_had submerged might blow the diminutive ship to atoms.

  With reckless abandon big bluff Bill Witt began to sing:

  _"It's a long way to Tipperary, It's a long way to go. It's a longway---"_

  The song was interrupted by a harsh grating sound---the crashing ofsteel against steel---and then the _Dewey_ shuddered from stem tostern as though it had run suddenly against a stone wall.

  Hurled from his feet by the fearful impact Jack sprawled on the steelfloor of the torpedo room. Ted, standing close by his chum, clutchedat one of the reserve torpedoes hanging in the rack in time to preventhimself falling.

  For a moment the _Dewey_ appeared to be going down by the stern, withher bow inclined upward at an angle of forty-five degrees. Above allthe din and confusion could be heard the roar of a terrific explosionoutside. The little submersible was caught in the convulsion of thesea until it seemed her seams would be rent and her crew engulfed.

  From the engine room Chief Engineer Blaine and his men retreatedamidships declaring that the submarine had been dealt a powerful blowdirectly aft the conning tower on her starboard beam.

  "Any plates leaking?" asked Lieutenant McClure quietly.

  "Not that we can notice, sir," replied Blame. "It appears as thoughthe nose of that Prussian scraped along our deck line abaft theconning tower."

  At any moment the steel plates were likely to cave in under the strainand the submarine be inundated.

  "Stand by ready for the emergency valve!" shouted Lieutenant McClure.

  This was the ship's safety contrivance. The Brighton boys had beenwonderfully impressed with it shortly after their first introductionto the "innards" of a submarine.

  The safety valve could be set for any desired depth; when the vesseldropped to that depth the ballast tanks were automatically opened andevery ounce of water expelled. As a result the submarine would shootto the surface. The older "submarine salts" called the safety the"tripper."

  "If they've punctured us we might as well cut loose and take ourchances on the surface," declared Lieutenant McClure to the littlegroup of officers standing with him amidships in the control chamber.

  Not a man dissented. They were content to abide by the word of theirchieftain. It was some relief to know that the nose of the destroyerhad not crashed through the skin of the submarine; but, from theconcussion astern and Chief Engineer Blaine's report, it was veryevident that the _Dewey_ had been struck a glancing blow. Deep-seapressure against a weakened plate could have but one inevitablesequel---the rending of the ship's hull.

  "They have gone completely over us," came the announcement from thewireless room.

  Hardly had the electrician concluded the report before the _Dewey_was rocked by another submarine detonation---the explosion of asecond depth bomb. This time it was farther from the hiding vessel;however, the ship was shaken until every electric light blinked inits socket.

  "I hope they soon get done with their Fourth of July celebration,"remarked Bill Witt by way of a bit of subsea repartee.

  "That's the way they blow holes in their schweitzer cheese," venturedMike Mowrey with a chuckle.

  It was decided to submerge a little deeper and then leisurely inspectthe interior hull aft. An observation with the microphones disclosedthe fact that the destroyer was moving out into the North Sea.

  "Guess they think they got us that time," suggested Lieutenant McClureto his executive officer.

  "Was rather a close call, come to think of it," smiled Cleary.

  The latter went aft with Chief Engineer Blaine for the hull inspectionand returned in a few moments to say that, so far as could be observedfrom the interior, she had not been dealt a severe blow. The executiveofficer ventured the opinion that the keel of the destroyer had brushedalong the aft deck, thus accounting for the fact that the submarinehad suddenly been tilted downward at the stern.

  "We'll not dare submerge too deep," said Lieutenant McClure. "Pressureagainst our hull increases, you know, at the rate of four and a quarterpounds to the square inch for every ten feet we submerge. It may beour plates were weakened by that collision. We'll go down to onehundred feet and lie there until these ships get out of the way."

  The depth dial showed eighty feet. More water, accordingly, wasshipped and the _Dewey_ slipped away to the desired depth, when theintake of ballast ceased and the tiny vessel floated alone in thesea. Determined to take no more chances with the Kaiser's navyuntil he had ascertained the true condition of his own vessel, LieutenantMcClure decided to lie-to here in safety.

  When the raiders had departed he would ascend and make a more detailedexternal inspection of the hull.
/>   It was half-past two. Jean Cartier superintended the distribution ofhot coffee and light "chow" and the crew made themselves comfortablein their submarine home.

  Half an hour later, when it had been determined by the telephones thatthe German ships had moved on westward, the _Dewey_ began again toascend the depths.

  Early dawn was streaking the sky with tints of orange gray when at lastthe submarine poked its periscopes above the waves. Not a ship was insight; there was not a trace of the battle cruiser that the _Dewey_ hadsent to her doom during the earlier hours of the night.

  "Didn't have a chance, did they?" Ted said to his churn in contemplationof the fate of the German warship.

  Jack felt different about it.

  "Sure they had a chance," he answered.

  "They would have gotten us if we hadn't landed them first."

  "Do the other fellow as you know he would do you," Jack philosophized.

  As the _Dewey_ emerged again on the surface with her deck andsuper-structure exposed, the ship's wireless aerials were run up andshe prepared to get in touch with the United States fleet. Jack creptinto the wireless room that he might better understand what was goingon. Lately he had been learning the wireless code and familiarizinghimself with the operation of the radio under the kindly instructionof Sammy Smith.

  "You never know when knowledge of these things is going to stand youin good stead," remarked Jack when he had applied to Sammy for "a bitin electricity."

  Once more the hatches were opened and the crew swarmed out to stretchtheir limbs and get a breath of fresh air again. Lieutenant McClurehastened to examine the deck of the _Dewey_ to ascertain whether anydamage had been done in the collision with the destroyer.

  Yes, there was a slight dent---a broad scar---running obliquely acrossthe deck plates just aft the conning tower within a few inches of theengine room hatch. The damage, however, appeared to be slight.

  "Narrow escape," the lieutenant pondered.

  "Zip! zip!" the wireless was sputtering as Sammy Smith flung a codemessage into space in quest of other members of the allied navies.Several times he shot out the call and then closed his key to awaita reply.

  Finally it came---a radio from an American warship far out of sightover the horizon.

  "Take this radio to Lieutenant McClure," said Sammy, as he typed itwith the wireless receiver still to his ears, and wheeled to hand itto Jack. The latter took the flimsy sheet and bounded up the aft hatchto where his commander stood examining the hull.

  "American and English cruisers and destroyers in running fight withGerman raiding squadron. Give us your position. U.S.S. _Salem_,"the message ran.

  At once the _Dewey's_ latitude and longitude were rattled off to theSalem. In reply came another radio from the scout cruiser, giving theposition of the raiding fleet and the pursuers, with this direction:

  "Close in from your position. German fleet in full retreat headedE.N.E. across North Sea. You may be able to intercept them!"