"And you bet we'll do it," retaliated his chief.
It was not long before the Monitor was ready to put to sea again. Thoroughly equipped, her captain and crew familiarized with the operation of their new craft after a number of trial trips in English waters, she awaited only the call of duty that would send her forth for daring exploits against the Hohenzollern navy—-a German submarine born of steel out of the great Krupp works and put together in the yards at Wilhelmshaven turned against her own sister ships under the direction of a doughty Yankee crew!
At last came the order to move, an order received with great acclaim down in the hold of the massive steel structure where her crew of forty-two men laid wagers on the number of ships they would sink, and up in the conning tower where her officers fretted to be loose again in the North Sea. The Monitor carried eight torpedoes and several tons of shells for her deck guns, while her fuel tanks had enough oil to keep her afloat for many days.
During the next few weeks the world was startled by the exploits of some daredevil sort of a submarine that seemed to have an uncanny habit of turning up right in the heart of German fleets. Units of the German navy were being sunk with ridiculous ease. U-boat bases were raided and upon one occasion the mystery submarine had worked its way into a German harbor and blown up a cruiser.
Late one afternoon, just before dusk, the Monitor fell in with a submarine of unusual length and depth, a monster vessel of the type of the famous Deutschland that had made the memorable transatlantic voyage earlier in the war, but of even greater displacement.
Running partly submerged the Monitor had sighted the big fellow several miles astern. Jack was in the conning tower at the wheel when he noticed the U-boat across the water.
"Looks like an undersea cargo boat," said Jack after he had reported to McClure, and the two stood gazing intently at it through the periscopes.
"The Germans aren't trading with cross-atlantic nations any more," said "Little Mack" with a grim smile. "Most likely she is a mother ship for submarines. She has her wireless antenna up and is talking to some one. Suppose we go above and get in communication with her."
Accordingly, the engines were slowed down and the Monitor ascended until she was awash. In that position her wireless aerials, telescopically arranged like her periscopes, were run out and the wires strung.
Almost immediately she "cut in" on the big submersible.