CHAPTER XIX
CAPTURING A U-BOAT
The battle at the wharf was of short duration. Completely surroundedand outnumbered ten to one, the party of isolated Germans threw downtheir arms and surrendered. From his vantage point behind the conningtower of the captured U-boat Jack kept tabs on the struggle until allfiring had ceased and he was sure the Germans had been completelysubjugated. The cheering of his rescuers apprised him of the defeatof the enemy. Walking out on the deck of the U-boat, he pulled offhis hat and welcomed his deliverers with a lusty yell.
His sudden appearance from behind the conning tower of the U-boatcompletely nonplussed his friends for a moment. The bluejacketswheeled at the sound of his voice and a dozen rifles were trained onhim in an instant.
"Don't fire!" yelled Jack. "I'm Jack Hammond of the U.S.S. _Dewey_."
For a moment the blue jackets paused---and then pandemonium brokeloose.
"Hurrah, hurrah for Jack Hammond!" they shouted. Hastily a gangplankwas thrown out to the captive U-boat and Jack ran ashore only to besurrounded by his fellow-countrymen and fairly lifted off his feet.
"We've heard all about you---how you escaped from the U-boat and calledfor help from the German wireless station. Bully for you, JackHammond; Uncle Sam can be proud of you," cried a sergeant of marines,who was gripping his hand with a clasp of steel.
Through the crowd of sailors and marines at that moment came a slenderlad who elbowed his way forward with the ruthless violence of afullback determined upon a touchdown. Right and left he tossed thebluejackets until he had fought to the side of the rescued Americanin the center of the group.
"Jack!" he yelled in delight.
"Ted!" cried the other almost in unison.
Unabashed, the two old Brighton chums embraced each other like twoschool girls just back for the fall term after summer vacation.
"Gee, chum, I never expected to see you again!" exclaimed Ted as hereleased his companion from a regular bear hug.
"Nor I you, either," said Jack. "Tell me, what happened to the _Dewey_?How did you get out? Where is McClure and all the rest of the crew?How did you get here?"
Jack was so excited thinking of his old friends he forgot his own partin the stirring incidents of the last few hours, and his own injury,as he insisted on hearing the whole story from his old roommate."I'll tell you pretty soon; everybody is safe and all O.K.," answeredTed. And then he beheld the blood dripping from Jack's wounded arm.
"Wait a moment; what's wrong here?" he exclaimed, lifting the armtenderly and disclosing to the view of the excited group of Americansa wound just above the wrist.
"Oh, it's just a scratch on the arm; one of the Boches nipped me whileI was out there on the U-boat deck waiting for you fellows to comedown through the village," he replied lightly, trying to minimize hisinjury.
A first-aid kit was produced and the wound hurriedly dressed. Itseemed to be but a slight flesh wound. In the midst of the dressinga great shrapnel shell burst just on the other side of the canaland threw some of its fragments into the water just beyond the U-boat.At the same moment was heard the whirr of an airplane motor overheadand very shortly a hand bomb crashed to earth not more than twohundred yards up the canal towpath, exploding with a terrible detonationand tearing up a fearful hole in the ground.
"The German guns are all in action now," said Ted as he watched theairplane circling above the U-boat base.
Jack was soon told of the situation. He had been rescued by a landingparty from several warships of the U.S. fleet. Under the cover oftheir guns, trained upon the German fortifications at Blankenberghe,further up the coast, and another Hun fort further down the coast, thebluejackets and marines had come ashore.
Seaward could be heard the incessant pounding of the American guns,intermingled with the boom-boom of the German artillery in the coastdefenses. The German air patrol had flashed warning of the approachingAmerican fleet and given the range to their gunners.
As Ted finished dressing the flesh wound, Jack saw coming toward hima naval officer whose epaulets showed him to be a Lieutenant-Commanderof the United States Navy. Jack saluted formally.
"Are you Mr. Jack Hammond of the U.S.S. _Dewey_?" the officer asked.
Jack replied in the affirmative.
"I am Lieutenant-commander Davis of the U.S.S. _Tallahassee_," repliedthe officer. "You are the man we came after, and now that we have foundyou we must get right out of here as quickly as possible. I should like,however, to congratulate you on your remarkable exploit in getting awayfrom the submarine and signaling so fearlessly for aid. Furthermore,I congratulate you, too, on capturing this U-boat single-handed."
Jack blushed and endeavored to stammer his thanks.
Immediately the American landing party prepared to retire. Deprivedof all arms, the German prisoners were turned loose and driven outof the village, with instructions to get away as quickly as possible.After communicating with the American fleet offshore, reporting therescue of Hammond and receiving instructions to get aboard ship asquickly as possible, Lieutenant-Commander Davis ordered the destructionof the wireless station. Likewise the two huge oil tanks at thecanal's edge in which the Germans had stored fuel for their U-boatswere fired, along with supply stores and every other thing that mightprove of value to the enemy.
Lieutenant-Commander Davis hurried up and asked Jack whether hisinjury was sufficiently serious to incapacitate him for active service.When Jack replied that he was capable of performing any desiredservice, the American officer said:
"We shall certainly try and take that U-boat along with us. I amgoing to detail twenty of my men to the U-boat under command ofLieutenant Bridwell I should like you and Mr. Wainwright to assistLieutenant Bridwell in getting the U-boat out to sea. We shallretire overland to our boats on the coast and leave you men to bringout the submarine."
Forthwith a crew was made up for the U-boat out of the landing party.Three Germans who still remained cowering within the conning tower ofthe submarine submitted quietly to capture. Lieutenant Bridwelldecided to make the Germans assist in getting the U-boat out to sea.
"Put one of our men over each of the chaps and tell them to shoot atthe first sign of any funny business," was Bridwell's order to Jack.It was found that the U-boat's fuel tanks had been but recentlyreplenished---in fact, the submarine bad been fitted for anothercruise and was all ready to put to sea.
Jack found himself acting as executive officer to Lieutenant Bridwellin the operation of the submersible. Her oil engines were easily setin motion and her steering apparatus; was not unlike that of the _Dewey_,so the task of navigating the captured prize out to sea seemed not adifficult one.
Lieutenant Bridwell summoned one of the German prisoners before him.
"You understand English?" he asked.
"Yes," answered the captive Teuton.
"Then listen to me," went on the American commander. "Either youassist us to get out to sea or forfeit your life. I don't mean bythat that we will kill you. The channel out to sea is probablymined and netted. If we explode a mine or run into a net and getstranded you die with the rest of us. Which will it be?"
The German signified his willingness to assist. He knew the channelvery well, he continued, and would do his part. And then the mostsurprising thing happened. Of his own free will the captive told howhe and his two companions aboard the U-boat had been pressed into thesubmarine service against their will. They had not desired to embarkwith one of the undersea fleet, but had been compelled to enlist inthe service.
Many of the Germans were in open revolt against U-boat service, saidthe Teuton, because of the great number of submersibles being sunkby the allied navies. Only the previous week a revolt had occurredin the fleet at Cuxhaven, an admiral and a naval commander had beenthrown overboard and a number of U-boats were lying inactive at theirbases because of the inability to ship crews.
When the American lad had driven them inside the U-boat at the approachof the victori
ous landing party, continued the loquacious prisoner,they had decided at first to cripple the U-boat. But after talkingit over they had decided that it would be better to fall into thehands of the Americans than to lose their lives by sinking the U-boat.
And now they were willing to assist their captors in getting safelyout to sea.
Lieutenant Bridwell smilingly accepted the offer, but with a knowingwink to Jack which meant that the latter was to keep close watch overthe talkative and seemingly docile German.
Now the evacuation of the U-boat base was under way. Having razed theplace completely, Lieutenant-commander Davis was directing the retreatof his men over the sand dunes to their waiting boats on the beachfront a mile or so off. German airplanes were making valiant effortsto wipe out the American landing party, but were so hard pressed bythe heavy fire from the American battleships at sea that their aimwas inaccurate.
The U-boat got under way with Lieutenant Bridwell, Jack, and theGerman pilot in the conning tower. Ted was dividing his time betweenthe engine room and the control chamber, where the other two Germanswere stationed under strong guard.
Moving very slowly, the U-boat was headed down the canal and verysoon emerged into the bay that Jack had found in his exploration ofthe coast. In full view now was the American fleet from which thelanding party had been set ashore---the battleship Tallahassee, thecruisers Detroit and Raleigh, the destroyer _Farragut_ and thesubmarine _Dewey_. The Tallahassee was lying broadside of the coastwith all her monster fourteen-inch guns ready for action.
Soon the U-boat had wormed its way safely out into the open sea andwas skimming along under the heavy fire of the fleet that was beingdirected against the German coast fortifications. As the U-boat, withthe Stars and Stripes flaunting astern, moved outward, the fleet gotunder way.
Notwithstanding the heavy German fire from the coast defenses theAmerican ships got safely away virtually unscarred in the battle.Fifteen miles out at sea the captured German U-boat came up withthe _Dewey_. Jack had a joyous reunion with "Little Mack," Clearyand Binns, Bill Witt, Mike Mowrey and all his other friends aboardthe reclaimed American submarine. And then he heard the completestory of his rescue.
No sooner had the _Dewey_ appeared upon the, surface, following thesuccessful consummation of Ted Wainwright's plan, than she hadsighted the destroyer _Farragut_. The latter had heard Jack's callfor help from the German wireless station ashore and had come dashingto the rescue. At first the commander of the _Farragut_ had consideredthe whole thing a ruse on the part of the Germans to lure an Americanship to its doom within range of the powerful coast guns; but thecontinued silence of the wireless station after that first franticcall for help had convinced the destroyer's commander that the messagewas genuine.
Along the way, while still attempting to speak the wireless operatorashore, the _Farragut_ had picked up the battleship Tallahassee andenlisted its aid. The latter had summoned the Detroit and the Raleigh.It was while the _Farragut_ was searching for some trace of the sunken_Dewey_ that the escaped submarine had suddenly shot to the surfacewithin a half mile of the destroyer.
When the Tallahassee, the Detroit and the Raleigh had come up, therehad been a conference and then the landing party had been resolvedupon. Two hundred and fifty bluejackets and marines had successfullyaccomplished the landing and after a brief search had spotted thewireless station and the U-boat village. The German submarine base,it was noted, was located along the banks of a canal leading intothe coast town of Blankenberghe---a waterway the Germans: had openedup after their occupation of Belgium.
Jack Hammond got a rousing reception. The story of his escape from the_Dewey_ and his bold adventure in the German wireless station hadbecome known and he was roundly cheered. When it was seen that theAmericans had brought back with them a huge German U-boat there wasgreat jubilation.
The captain of the Tallahassee, who was the ranking officer of theassembled fleet, decided that the _Farragut_ should tow the capturedU-boat to the American naval base on the English coast, while the_Dewey_ also was to return to the same port for thorough inspectionand repairs. A number of her crew were in bad shape from the longconfinement in the stranded sub.
"Your men need a bit of play after their hazardous experience," wasthe message flashed to the _Dewey_ from the Tallahassee's commanderas he bade "Little Mack" and his men Godspeed.
And so, after an uneventful run across the North Sea, the _Dewey_came back to England, bringing as her prize a monster U-boat of thelatest design, complete in every detail and ready for service underthe Stars and Stripes.
And with her came Jack Hammond---a new American naval hero, whose deedshad fitted him for rank among the immortal list.
Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Page 19
