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Updated: May 25, 2025
"Could not be better for our purposes had it been made to order," smiled McClure, as he gave orders for the repair crew to haul out the reserve periscopes and get busy. It was impossible to see more than a hundred yards from the sides of the Dewey in any direction, and there appeared nothing but the rolling swell of the ocean.
In two minutes she was submerged, only the tips of her periscopes showing. "They have their aft guns trained on us and are firing away as fast as they can load and reload," said Jack as he gazed into the tube. "Well, they'll never get us now," exclaimed McClure as the Monitor took in another three hundred pounds of water ballast and dived down out of sight of the German warship.
The periscopes had been well out of water when the destroyer had first been sighted. It was now a race between two cool and cunning naval officers -the German to hurl his vessel full upon the American submarine and deal it a death blow; the American skipper to outwit and outmaneuver his antagonist by putting the Dewey down where she would be safe from the steel nose of the destroyer.
On deck the 6-inch starboard and port batteries were blazing away, not only at objects that might turn out to be periscopes or submarines, but in order to call assistance; for the wireless was out of commission, and there was not a sail or a hull in sight. After a few minutes, the bugles sounded the order "Prepare to abandon ship."
If you were merely to submerge, and lie close by with only your periscopes showing, it seems to me that you might manage to take them unawares. 'I've got a better plan than that, sir, broke in Ken quickly. 'Put Horan and myself in the boat. Give us some pistols. We'll sham shipwrecked. Most of us can hide in the bottom of the boat. The launch won't have much of a crew.
It was only after a hard experience against U-boats that they evolved this law to save men from breaking down. And for watches: eight hours in every twenty-four, night and day watching of their convoy, of their colleagues, of periscopes.
There were some interchanges with serious men, who did not sing, but who sat about in mud, or leaned against it, and were covered with it, or who were waiting with rifles ready, or looking through periscopes, or doing things over fires which smoked till the eyes were red. "Come and see our mine crater," said my guide. "It's a topper. Fritz made it, but we've got it."
Turning her nose outward from the hidden transports the Dewey drew away in a wide sweeping circle to starboard. "All hands below!" came the order. Immediately the deck guns were made fast and the crew scrambled down through the hatches. In a few minutes, driving ahead at full speed, the Dewey was submerged until only her periscopes showed.
Only the look-out men, crouching behind their periscopes and loopholes, keep their posts. The wind is the wrong way for gas, and in any case we all have respirators. Private M'Leary, the humorist of "A" Company, puts his on, and pretends to drink his tea through it. Altogether, the British soldier appears sadly unappreciative either of "frightfulness" or practical chemistry. He is a hopeless case.
Once a man has had shell-shock he is never of any use under shell-fire again, although he might be quite brave under any other fire and suffer no ill effects in civil life. Where there is so much shell-fire the observation of the German sentries is very poor and surprise raids are easily carried out. Fritz is very reluctant to put his head up and periscopes are always being smashed.
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