trawler; "they can't find us."

Five men on the trawler were scanning the sea with glasses
looking for submarines. We could follow all their motions, could
tell when they thought they had found us and see their
disappointment at their mistakes, but though we were never more
than five hundred yards from them, I did not think they were
pikers because they did not find us. I had tried that hunt for
the tiny wave of a periscope.

"No use wasting a torpedo on those fellows," said our commander.
"We will use the gun on them."

"How far away can you use a torpedo?" I asked.

"Two hundred yards is the best distance," he said. "Never more
than five hundred. A torpedo is pure guesswork at more than five
hundred yards."

We crossed the bow of the trawler, circled around to her
starboard quarter and came to the surface, fired nine shots and
submerged again in forty-five seconds.

The prey secured, we ran submerged through the mine field and
past the net barrier to come to the surface well within the
harbour and proceed peacefully to our mooring under the shelter
of the guns of the land forts.

Life and work on a German submarine is known to us, of course, only
from descriptions in German publications. One of these appeared,
previous to our entry in the war, in various journals and was
translated and republished by the New York _Evening Post_. It reads
partly as follows:

"U-47 will take provisions and clear for sea. Extreme economical
radius."

A first lieutenant, with acting rank of commander, takes the
order in the grey dawn of a February day. The hulk of an old
corvette with the Iron Cross of 1870 on her stubby foremast is
his quarters in port, and on the corvette's deck he is presently
saluted by his first engineer and the officer of the watch. On
the pier the crew of U-47 await him. At their feet the narrow
grey submarine lies alongside, straining a little at her cables.

"Well, we've our orders at last," begins the commander,
addressing his crew of thirty, and the crew grin. For this is
U-47's first experience of active service. She has done nothing
save trial trips hitherto, and has just been overhauled for her
first fighting cruise. Her commander snaps out a number of
orders. Provisions are to be taken in "up to the neck," fresh