er and were less remarkable than those we had already experienced
and which I have already carefully described? The climax of the journey
was reached at the encounter with the _Ormea_, and, after the climax is
reached, one should be brief. For those interested, I can assure them
that we did not let the schooner escape which had tried to save herself
by flight, but hurried quickly after her, and, as soon as the crew had
disembarked, torpedoed her. However, we regretted that the captain of
the tug that tried to ram us escaped through her superior speed.

We were fortunate enough to make another catch on this same day, just as
darkness was setting in, a steamer loaded with meat, inward bound from
Sydney. We continued for several days through this fruitful field of
operation in every direction and had both good and bad luck. Schweckerle
had to bite into a bitter apple several times, as one after another of
his children faithlessly abandoned him. But he had the joy of knowing
that none of them went contrary to his good bringing-up and the care it
had received.

Many successes we put down in our log and sometimes exciting episodes
and narrow escapes, when our enemy's destroyers and patrol ships came
across our path of daily toil, so that we should not be too
presumptuous and careless.

Then at last came the day when we decided to start our homeward journey.
The torpedoes and shells were exhausted. Of oil, fresh water, and
provisions we had such a scanty supply left that it was necessary for us
to return. It was impossible to tell what kind of weather we would have
on our return trip, and, if it did not storm, there might be strong head
winds to hold us back.

I decided to take a new route for our journey home. The Witch-Kettle
with its horrors was still fresh in our minds and we preferred to take a
roundabout way, rather than to run risks which could be easily avoided
after a successfully completed task. In this period of thirteen days our
nerves had been affected and there was little power of resistance left
in them. It would not be advisable to put them to another severe test.

So it came to pass on the fifteenth day after the start of the voyage,
that a great storm hit us and for several days kept us hard at work. We
found ourselves far up in the North Atlantic where the warm spring for a
long time still wears its winter's furs, and the sun never rises high.
The icy, north wind, which blows three-quarters of the year,