ed eight bells the
officer on duty snatched up the binoculars, and almost simultaneously
the look-out gave a warning shout which caused the attention of everyone
on deck to suddenly become strained.

Away to port, less than half-a-mile distant, the thin grey tube of a
periscope could be seen planing through the waves, with a fringe of
white foam blowing from its base. There was a hoarse cry down the
fo'c'sle hatch for "All hands on deck!" The telegraph tinkled for "Full
ahead!" A signal was made to the ships astern for concerted action. The
gun was manned, and the leading trawler, now cleared for action, headed
towards her under-water opponent.

The other two vessels of the unit put on speed and spread out until all
three were line-abreast and about two cables apart. In this formation
the chase was maintained for some twenty minutes, when a second
submarine appeared above the surface away to starboard. She appeared to
be a large vessel and would probably have turned the scale at 1000 tons.

It was at this early stage in the action that the mistake was made. The
leading trawler immediately opened fire, but the range was considerable
and the shells fell short. Signalling to the other two trawlers to
continue the chase of the first submarine sighted, she headed straight
for the largest of the two hostile craft to engage her at close range.

While this was in progress the first submarine came to the surface and
proved to be also a larger craft than had been anticipated. The two
trawlers chasing her immediately opened fire, but her superior surface
speed soon placed her out of range of the comparatively small guns then
carried by the trawler patrols.

Now came the surprise. Almost simultaneously the two submarines opened
fire from heavy guns. The shells at first fell wide, but in a moment
the British officers realised that they were outranged, for whereas
their shells were falling short, those from the enemy whistled over
their heads and ploughed up columns of white water over a cable's length
astern.

To increase speed and so reduce the range became imperative, and the
steam-pressure in the trawlers' boilers was raised to bursting point by
the simple expedient of screwing down the safety valve. For some minutes
it looked as though the effort would be successful, and then the range
slowly increased again and "short" after "short" was registered by the
gunners.

At this psychological moment a German shell carried away