At 9 o'clock in the evening we were able to rise
and proceed in safety."
Here is a human document, is it not? It is the experience of the tarpon
at the undersea end of the line, or, in human terms, the hidden drama of
man against man, drama of the sort made possible by the ingenuity of
this modern age.
Submarine-chasers are shallow craft, capable of a speed of thirty-five
miles an hour or more, mounting guns fore and aft. Some of our chasers
measure more than 200 feet over all (_Eagle_ class), while others
measure 110 feet. The British, as already said, like the 80-footer,
although using all sizes. Well, in any event, the chaser cruises about
looking for surface waves. Now, the surface wave is the path marked by a
submarine on the surface of the water. Even when she is fifty feet below
the surface she leaves this palpable pathway up above. And few
submarines travel at a depth of sixty feet. Then besides this track
there are air-bubbles and spots of oil, all confirming the presence
beneath the water of the U-boat.
So thereafter the chaser simply follows that surface wave until the
submarine comes to the surface, as she must do sooner or later to get
her bearings and look about for prey. When she does come up--she goes
down for good. The hunt of the chaser has been aided in the past year or
so by the depth-bomb, which did not exist in the first two and a half
years of war. Equipped with this, she need not necessarily follow a
surface wave all day; she simply drops the bomb down through this wave;
at least she does under certain conditions.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114