"Lucky it's high tide; just beginning to ebb," said Captain Nicholson. "We'll find all the water on the bar that is ever there."
There was to be no more sleep now on the Y-3. From the gunner's mate down every man of the crew was on the qui vive.
As the submarine neared where the bar was charted, it came up till the pressure gauge showed only ten feet of water above.
"Ten feet to hide us from the forts' lookouts and guns," explained Captain Nicholson.
Suddenly there was a jar that stirred all on board off their feet. There was a sensation of sinking. As previously instructed, the diving rudder man immediately gave the submarine up-rudder. Captain Nicholson ordered full speed ahead, although he knew it would mean that the vessel's periscope would show, giving the enemy a good look at the vessel.
"If we hadn't come up," said Captain Nicholson, "we would have been sucked down solidly into the sand, and good-bye to our chances at those men-o-war inside."
He was silent a moment and then added: "This is what I call tough luck. We shall have to porpoise."
In a second the submarine was again down in the deep basin beyond the bar. The vessel hadn't been up long enough for the commander even to get a look around.
"Here's where we get busy," said Captain Nicholson. "It's up to us to rush the work along before the men in the fort, who must have seen us, can take measures against us."
The submarine ran along at a speed of ten knots at a depth of forty feet and in almost no time at all had covered the mile from the entrance to where the men-of-war lay.