e buoy. The sweat stood out on my
forehead, and the excitement made me so warm that the sights on the
periscope time and time again clouded up on account of the heat from my
body. The mate must continually wipe the wet glass with a piece of
chamois.

"Now we should be off the buoy, Mate, but I don't see it! Good God, what
are we going to do! It will be fatal--it is impossible to navigate
without picking it up. And besides, the destroyer which is lurking
behind that confounded rainwall and which at any minute can come up
alongside us!"

The buoy did not appear.

Then the weather began to clear up. The rain thinned and the fog lifted
a little.

First we saw land. Thereafter we saw the destroyer at quite a distance
on the port side, laying a course towards us, and then--then----

All good spirits have mercy on us!

The buoy--our buoy--was to the wrong side.

And we? Great God in Heaven--we were going on the wrong course! We were
running right for the sandbank. We must already be right on top of them.
Disastrously for us, it has cleared too late.

"Hard a-starboard! Reverse both engines full speed!" There was nothing
more to do. Then came the disaster! A jar and a whirring--U-boat 202 had
gone aground.

VI

A DAY OF TERROR

What we went through was horrible. The breakers dashed high over the
sandbar. They hurled themselves on us to destroy our boat, played ball
with us, lifted us high into the air and dropped us again on the bar
with such fury that the whole boat shivered and trembled.

We had lost control of the boat completely. The roaring breakers made so
much noise we could hear them through the thick metal wall. Every new,
onrushing wave tossed us higher and higher on the reef. Exposure was our
greatest danger. Already the top of the conning tower and the prow
projected above the surface--but a moment more and the entire boat would
be plainly visible. Then we would surely be lost. As a helpless wreck,
we would become a target for the destroyer.

Pale and calm, every man stuck to his post and clung to the nearest
support, so as not to fall at the rolling and jolting of the boat. With
awe, I looked alternately at the manometer and the feverish sea which I
could see all around me through the conning tower windows. Oh, if it had
been only the sea we must fear! But through the scum and froth, more
merciless than the wild, onrushing breakers, the black destroyer,
smoking copiously, steamed straight