“Still, it’s only what those who embark on a U-boat expect,” Tom told a woman who expressed to him her horror at the fate that had overtaken the German crew. “They never go out but they count themselves as good as dead, I’ve read. And if by great good luck they get safely back into harbor again it’s as though a new life had been given to them.”
“Well, we’re leaving the spot at last now,” remarked Jack, with a sigh of relief. “The captain feels he has done everything that could be expected. His conscience can’t trouble him. Those pirates of the twentieth century took their chances, and they lost out against our superior gunners, which is all there is to it.”
“And think of what a small object our men had for a mark!” Tom went on to say. “I suppose, though, it’s easier shooting from the steady deck of a big liner like this than from a jerky low platform, such as the deck of a submarine must present. That’s why the Germans’ shooting was so poor, even at a big target.”
Soon they were once again pursuing their regular course. No one was sorry, for there must always be a certain amount of additional danger attached to such an errand of mercy. These Germans would neither understand their motives, nor think of sparing them if an opportunity arose whereby the mistake of the first unlucky, undersea craft could be repaired.
“What was it those gunners had with them, but failed to drop overboard?” asked Jack, pointing as he spoke to some men who were placing some object under cover again.
“I don’t exactly know,” his chum replied, “but I’ve an idea it may have been what they call a depth bomb. It was possibly intended to drop it down after we’d passed the spot, if there were no actual signs that the submarine had been destroyed. But when the captain took note of all that oil on the sea he had no doubt about it; so the bomb wasn’t used, after all.”
“What is a depth bomb, Mr. Raymond?” asked a woman standing beside the two air service boys.
“It’s a new invention that they use with good results in hunting these sea slinkers,” she was told. “When a destroyer sights a periscope it speeds to the spot at the rate of nearly forty miles an hour. If the German submerges in a hurry so the destroyer’s crew can’t shoot his periscope away, and so destroy him, then they drop over one of those bombs.
“It sinks to a certain depth and then explodes. In many cases they prove effectual, and nothing is ever seen of the sub again, while great quantities of oil and grease come up to tell what happened far below.”
“Well, the many things that have been invented to take human life since this war started are wonderful—and terrible—” sighed the woman.