lpha_, _Beta_, _Gamma_, and
_Theta_, they were by no means modern vessels, and found their prototypes
in the old F class of British boats, having a submerged displacement of
eight hundred tons, with heavy oil engines of sixteen hundred
horse-power, giving them a speed of eighteen knots on the surface and of
twelve knots submerged. Their length was one hundred and eighty-six and
their breadth twenty-four feet. They had a radius of action of four
thousand miles and a submerged endurance of nine hours. These were
considered the latest word in 1915, but the four new boats exceeded them
in all respects. Without troubling you with precise figures, I may say
that they represented roughly a twenty-five per cent. advance up on the
older boats, and were fitted with several auxiliary engines which were
wanting in the others. At my suggestion, instead of carrying eight of
the very large Bakdorf torpedoes, which are nineteen feet long, weigh
half a ton, and are charged with two hundred pounds of wet gun-cotton, we
had tubes designed for eighteen of less than half the size. It was my
design to make myself independent of my base.

And yet it was clear that I must have a base, so I made arrangements at
once with that object. Blankenberg was the last place I would have
chosen. Why should I have a _port_ of any kind? Ports would be watched
or occupied. Any place would do for me. I finally chose a small villa
standing alone nearly five miles from any village and thirty miles from
any port. To this I ordered them to convey, secretly by night, oil,
spare parts, extra torpedoes, storage batteries, reserve periscopes, and
everything that I could need for refitting. The little whitewashed villa
of a retired confectioner--that was the base from which I operated
against England.

The boats lay at Blankenberg, and thither I went. They were working
frantically at the defences, and they had only to look seawards to be
spurred to fresh exertions. The British fleet was assembling. The
ultimatum had not yet expired, but it was evident that a blow would be
struck the instant that it did. Four of their aeroplanes, circling at an
immense height, were surveying our defences. From the top of the
lighthouse I counted thirty battleships and cruisers in the offing, with
a number of the trawlers with which in the British service they break
through the mine-fields. The approaches were actually sown with two
hundred mines, half contact and ha