“Exec.’s plotting the fix in the chart room; let’s see how he’s coming out.”
They went to the small chart room on the after part of the bridge, and looked over the executive officer’s shoulder. He was just finishing his plot of the second set of triple bearings from a line on the chart representing the twelve-mile scouting line of the three ships. Where the lines met they crossed in a pair of elongated triangles which overlapped in a small area.
“Those look like good fixes,” said Fraser. “Where would you put him, Evans, on the strength of them?”
Evans drew a pencil line around the two triangles, enclosing an area about seven miles long and two miles wide. “It’s safe to say he’s somewhere in that area. The second fix was the best; I’d go more by that. If we put him there, we shan’t be far off,” and he marked with his pencil a spot near the center of the triangle made by the second set of bearings. This spot was thirty-eight nautical miles from the present position of the flagship. Fraser said, “They’re undoubtedly still steaming northwest at about eleven knots; but they’ll change when they hear us coming.” Then he made a hurried calculation, stepped to the radio phone, and called to the other destroyers:
“Course, twenty-three degrees, true; speed of port wing boat, thirty-six knots; starboard boat, thirty-two knots till line is true on the new course, then squadron speed thirty-six knots; keep six miles distant for the present; speed up now.”
He put up the phone, said to the officer of the deck, “Course, twenty-three degrees; speed, thirty-four knots.” Word was passed to the engine room, and almost at the same moment the three destroyers swung six degrees to starboard and leapt forward like greyhounds unleashed.
There was a light head wind which at eighteen knots had scarcely been noticed, but now, as they dashed headlong into the seas at double the speed, masses of fine spray rose from the bow and swept madly past, white and ghostly in the darkness, mingling again with the tumultuous white wake receding rapidly astern.
But there was little thought of spray or foam on the bridge. Captain and “exec.” alert and tense, conversed in brief sentences, while the officer of the deck with brisk orders directed the business of the bridge. Quartermasters, on the jump, dispatched their duties, noting and reporting readings of the wing boats’ distance and bearing. The helmsman, ignoring all else, kept the racing ship true on her course. Elsewhere gun crews and depth charge crews were ready for instant action.
Fraser turned to Evans.
“Has he heard our radio phones yet?”