p, going the same way as
the torpedo, made fast and short shots harder to get; also because the
backwash of the screw helped to put torpedoes off their course; and
finally because the target was itself firing back at the submarine.
Even so, however, it was often touch-and-go; and very few people ever
enjoyed the fun of being fired at as much as that little Canadian girl
of six, who, seeing a torpedo shimmering past the ship's side, called
out, "Oh, Mummy, look at the pretty fish!" Once a fast torpedo was hit
and exploded by a shell from the vessel its submarine was chasing. But
this was a perfect fluke.

More to the point was the readiness of the merchantman _Valeria_ and of
Commander Stockwell's destroyer to turn happy accidents to the best
account on the spur of the moment. The _Valeria_ bumped over a rising
submarine at three o 'clock one summer morning off the coast of
Ireland. Instantly all hands ran to "action stations," when the gunner
saw, to his delight, that the periscope had been broken off and so the
submarine was blind. His first shot hit the hull. His second was a
miss. But his third struck the base of the conning tower; on which the
submarine sank, nothing but bubbles and oil remaining to mark the spot
where she went down. Stockwell's adventure was rather different. He
had marked a submarine slinking round in the early dawn, and, knowing
the spot the Germans liked best outside of Liverpool, watched his
chance over it. Suddenly he felt his destroyer being lifted up, tilted
over, and slid aside. The "sub" had risen right under it! Swinging
clear in a moment he let go a depth charge; and the sea-quake that
followed had plenty of signs to show that the "sub" had gone down.

1917 was the great year of submarine war: the Germans straining every
nerve to kill off all the ships that went to or from the Allied ports,
the Allies trying their best to kill off all the submarines. The
Mediterranean was bad, the North Atlantic was worse, the west coasts of
the British Islands worst of all. The American Navy came in and did
splendid service off the south coast of Ireland, in the Bay of Biscay,
and along the North Atlantic seaways between French and British and
American ports. More and more destroyers were put into service, aided
by "chasers"--very much smaller vessels with only one gun and a few
men, but so cheap and easily built that they could be turned out in
swarms to help in worrying the submarines