Not a vessel had yet been sighted, and with the freedom of the open sea the sub was able to cruise on the surface at full speed. Several hours later the Monitor picked up H.M.S. Chesterton, turned over the German prisoners, and gave warning of the intended U-boat raid on the transports. "We sank the mother ship of the submarines," McClure told the Chesterton's commander, "but they'll probably get their supplies elsewhere and try to pull off the stunt."
The world was electrified next morning by the news of a great battle between the Allied High Seas Fleet and the German submarine flotilla, in which the Germans, outnumbered and outgeneraled, were beaten off with the loss of several giant U-boats. The Monitor played a very important part in the engagement and had the satisfaction of sinking one of the enemy ships by gunfire, coming up at close range right beside the U-boat and engaging her in an old-fashioned hand-to-hand conflict.
Several days later while cruising in the North Sea a call came to the Monitor—-a radiogram from the flagship of the American admiral, summoning the sub to a rendezvous with other allied submarines for important instructions.
CHAPTER XXIV
INTO ZEEBRUGGE
The appointed time the Monitor arrived with other units of the American submarine fleet at the designated point off the English coast, to which point the undersea flotilla had been ordered by wireless. There, awaiting them, was the Admiral's flagship, and all around her trim vessels flying the Stars and Stripes—-"sentinels of democracy."
In the fleet mobilized the Monitor spoke several vessels that had accompanied the Dewey across the Atlantic on her first voyage into the war zone; there, also, were many other submarines built in American shipyards and now in commission in the North Sea activities. It was a wonderful picture well calculated to stir the blood of indomitable spirits like Jack Hammond and Ted Wainwright.
In response to a call from the flagship the Monitor came alongside and Lieutenant McClure with his executive officer and his aide went aboard. From the Admiral himself they received warm commendation for the heroic exploits of the converted U-boat, with special reference to the individual deeds of Ensign Hammond and Ensign Wainwright.
"Permit me to present you two brave lads with these," said the American Admiral as he took from his aide two official envelopes and handed them to Jack and Ted. Saluting, the two boys took the communications and stepped back beside their commander. The Admiral and Lieutenant McClure withdrew and went below, leaving Jack and Ted on the forward deck under the giant fifteen-inch guns of the battleship Pennsylvania, flagship of the American North Sea fleet.
The Brighton boys proceeded to open the official documents and found commissions signed by the Secretary of the Navy delegating to them the rank of first lieutenant, U.S.N.