“That’s reasonable,” said Fraser. “Anyhow, we’d better wait here and listen a bit.”
Fifteen minutes passed, and not a sound was heard. Was the submarine sunk? Was she so crippled that she could not move, or was she “playing ’possum”; playing dead in hopes they’d leave her? Submarines have survived a barrage as dense as this one, damaged, but still able to lurk beneath the sea.
At length Fraser said, “I think we’d better explore.” The three ships turned cautiously round and headed back for the spot indicated by the magnetic detectors, steaming at only six knots, so that no sound should be missed, the flagship slightly in the lead. They had gone perhaps two hundred yards into the bombed area when the man on the flagship’s detector reported a deflection.
“Is it getting bigger?” asked the skipper.
“Yes,” came through the voice-tube.
“Let us know when it’s maximum,” he called back. Just then from the starboard boat came the report, “Very slight deflection.”
A few seconds later from the voice-tube came, “No further increase.”
At a word from the skipper a float with a light was dropped over the stern to mark the spot.
Dropping depth charges at six knots is unhealthy for the boat that does it, as some learned to their cost in 1918. Therefore no “ash cans” were dropped during this exploratory maneuver. As they passed on away from the lighted float, the deflection of the magnetic detector grew smaller and disappeared. The detectors of the three ships indicated that the sub had been almost under the flagship, but a little way to starboard. Her position was well marked by the light. Proceeding far enough to get up a safe speed for bombing, the three ships turned and formed their line with greatest care, this time closer together. Then they steamed back at a good speed over the marked spot. Just before they reached it, the signal was given, and a small but deadly pattern of depth charges began to fall. Through the skillful generalship of Commander Fraser the circle of certain death surrounding each depth charge was made to overlap those of the adjacent charges. Two men standing at the stern of the flagship, straining their eyes back into the darkness, reported seeing black things rise into the air in the midst of the great white fountain of shattered water following one of the explosions. But this was not enough for Fraser;—imagination may play strange tricks on a night like this.
As soon as the last bomb had exploded, the ships stopped short once more, and listened. Not a sound was heard beneath the waves. Again they turned and steamed slowly back to the spot where the focus of the attack had been and dropped overboard another lighted float to replace the first which, needless to say, had been demolished by the barrage. This time the magnetic detectors showed not the slightest deflection. Slowly they steamed back and forth twice over the marked spot, listening as well as watching the magnetic detector, but not a sign or sound was recorded. Then they steamed at fifteen knots on a “retiring search curve” like a watch-spring around the lighted float, listening intently, till they had covered a circle with a radius of a mile and a half, but no trace was found, magnetic or audible, of the submarine. The inference seemed clear, for had she been slipping away from them they would have heard her, or if too slow for that the magnetic device would have found her somewhere in that area. Could there have been some serious lapse in the vigilance of the trained listeners and observers, or some error in their calculations, or had the submarine, indeed, been sent to the bottom of the sea?