We followed her at a distance of about a mile and as long as there were no other ships in sight we ran light, though the way the waves broke over her she seemed to be running awash most of the time. This made no difference to us and it was a great relief to come up from our stuffy holes and walk the deck. Of all my sea-going experiences I liked this much the best.
Why? You know how a city chap with a drop of red blood in his veins likes to get out in the woods and walk, eat and sleep on the ground. He does it simply because he gets as close to nature as he ever can and know about it. Well, when I walked the bit of deck of the H-24 I got just as close to the sea as I could and yet stay above water and there was a mighty fascination about it too.
We cruised about most of the time in a light condition, though we occasionally had to submerge and tagged around after the Henrietta which acted as a base, or mother-ship to us. It was a curious thing how merchant ships that made every effort to keep out of the way of raiders would run right into them and that the Henrietta who was out for this very purpose couldn’t meet up with anything more dangerous than a sea-gull.
But hold, matey, what’s that the Captain of the Henrietta sends over by wireless? We can’t see the ship for we set too close to the water but he can make it out very well with his glasses. We dive until we are completely submerged but still following in the wake of the Henrietta according to a prearranged scheme.
“Ship headed for us,” the Henrietta’s Captain signaled our Commander by our sound conduction system.
“She flies the French flag,” he sent to us next.
Then later on I got this and handed it to our commander:
“Believe she’s a German raider.”
Every man was at his post and ready and anxious to do his duty. When the raider, which was the Koln and one of the worst offenders of her kind, was within half-a-mile of the Henrietta she sent a shot over her bow and signaled her to stand by. This she did and then the Captain of the Koln signaled that he would send his officers to examine her papers and cargo—to get whatever gold she might have—and this he promptly did. At the same time he had her guns trained on the helpless Henrietta to prevent her from trying to steam away or putting on all speed and ramming her with her sharp bow.
Just as the officers of the Koln were being lowered in a launch the Captain of the Henrietta signaled our commander just two words and these were: “Torpedo her.”