nutes later we sighted a
couple of men who looked to be struggling in the water, but turned out
to be supporting themselves on a fragment of 'dough-nut,' which had
broken loose when the ship sank. That, strange to say, was the only
bit of wreckage that came to the surface. We took these men aboard, and
the ten of us weighted the overloaded float so that is submerged till
the water reached our armpits. We were a good deal better off than it
would seem, though, for the most of us were heavily dressed, and the
animal heat of a man keeps him warm for a long time under oilskins and
wool. The only ones that suffered much were a couple of lads who didn't
have any more sense than to ditch most of their togs before they went
over the side. They said it was so as not to be hampered in swimming--as
if they expected to do the 'Australian crawl' to Norway or the
Shetlands! These two _did_ begin to get a bit down-hearted and 'shivery'
when the cold struck into the marrow of their bones, and it was with the
idea of bucking them up a peg or two that we started singing. No, I
don't just remember all that we did warble, except, I'm glad to say,
that 'Tipperary' wasn't on the programme, and that this did include two
or three hymns. You're quite right. There's nothing very warming to a
chilled man in hymns, and I'm not trying to account for why we sang
them. The fact remains that we _did_, just the same, and that we all,
including the chaps in their underclothes, lived to sing again.

"There was a bit of a disappointment when an armed trawler, which was
evidently searching for survivors, passed within a mile without sighting
us or hearing our shouts, but with the life-boat of one of the sunk
Norwegian steamers we had better luck. She came bowling along under sail
about ten o'clock in the morning, and, on sighting the black silk
handkerchief we hoisted at the end of a paddle-blade, eased off her
sheet and stood over to pick us up. As there were only six men in her,
we were not badly off for room, while the store of biscuit and potted
stuff--to say nothing of smokes--they had managed to throw aboard before
their ship sunk was more than enough for the two days that it took us to
row and sail to Bergen."

CHAPTER XIII

ROUNDING UP FRITZ

There are only two or three conditions under which a destroyer can hope
to surprise a U-boat on the surface, and none of these is approximated
at the end of a clear North Sea summer afternoon with