an object on
the Shipwash, a long, narrow shoal that lies about ten miles east of
Harwich. The captain of the _Firedrake_, wishing to satisfy himself as
to the nature of this object, steamed nearer to it and discovered that
it was the conning-tower of a submarine, obviously of a German
submarine, as none of our own submarines was in the vicinity. The
German was aground on the shoal and at the mercy of the British. As
the _Firedrake_ approached her, the German crew were seen to be
standing on her upper deck, which was awash, and holding up their
hands. When the destroyer got still nearer, the Germans jumped into
the water and were soon picked up by the destroyer's boats, which had
been lowered for the purpose. It was thought that all the men had been
brought on board the _Firedrake_, when a man was observed to hurry up
to the submarine's deck from below. He shouted and waved his hands
frantically, and then jumped overboard. He was picked up and brought
off, but volunteered no information as to what he had been doing
before he had left his ship. This was soon made clear, however, for
several explosions now followed each other on the stranded submarine,
and bits of bedding and other articles and volumes of brown smoke were
seen to be pouring out of her conning-tower.

It was a dirty trick to play after a surrender. Had the explosions
occurred a few minutes later, we should probably have lost some of our
own men, as boats were about to put off to the submarine with a
boarding party. If the case had been reversed, and the crew of a
British stranded ship had done this thing, the Germans would
undoubtedly have shot them, had there been any left to shoot; for
probably shell and machine-gun fire would have been playing upon our
men both before they had abandoned the ship and afterwards while they
were in the water--as witness the E13. The German prisoners taken from
the submarine, however, were treated by the British in a humane
fashion.

And yet, as it turned out, the treacherous Hun had yet another and
more dangerous trap arranged for us. Time having been allowed for any
possible further explosions on the enemy boat, Torpedo-Lieutenant
Paterson and two other officers went off to her, in order to ascertain
her condition. They found that the examination could be more easily
carried out at low water. So two hours later, when the tide had
fallen, they again visited the ship. She proved to be a submarine
mine-layer, the U.C. 5,