“Propellers,” he said, “plenty of them—ten degrees to port.”
“Take her to two hundred feet,” March ordered, and then gave a slight change in course to the helmsman.
“We’ll get right in their path and lay low without motors running. The sound detectors on the advance destroyers won’t catch us, then. When they’ve passed over we can pick up motors again because their own propellers will kill all the sound ours make. We’ll come up in about the middle, pick our spot and let go. I’ll want the periscope up for just about five seconds.”
The boat leveled off at two hundred and fifty feet. Motors were shut off. Soon the sound man reported the close approach of the propellers. March had judged right—they were passing overhead.
“Destroyer a little to starboard, passing over,” the soundman reported.
“Another to port,” he reported in a moment. Then, a little later, “Battleship.”
“Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to get that?” murmured one of the men.
“Nice, yes,” March replied. “But that wouldn’t do the job for the other boys that we’re going to do. We’ll let one of the Forts get that battleship. We’ll just send it running.”
The men nodded in agreement. They knew the Skipper’s plan was best.
Ship after ship passed over as there was silence in the submarine. Then March spoke.