went the _Flash_ to
investigate. Scarcely had I turned than a wireless signal was brought to
me on the bridge repeating the calls of assistance of a steamer that was
being shelled by an enemy submarine. That little 'flying start' of mine,
which involved leaving the ship I was escorting and jumping out without
waiting for orders, gave me the minute or so to the good which probably
made all the difference between success and failure. But that is quite
characteristic of destroyer work; more than in any other class of ship,
you are called on to decide for yourself, to jump out on your own.

"The first thing I saw was the dim blur of a small merchantman taking
shape in the mist, and as the image sharpened, the splash of falling
projectiles became visible. She was throwing out a cloud of smoke and
zigzagging in a panicky sort of way in an endeavour to avoid the shells
which were exploding nearer and nearer at every shot. As she caught
sight of the _Flash_ she altered course and headed straight up for us,
and, busy as my mind was at the moment, I could not help thinking how
like her action was to that of an Aberdeen pup I used to own when he saw
me coming to extricate him from his daily scrap with a neighbour's fox
terrier.

"It was just at the moment that the merchantman turned up to get under
our wing that the sharpening gun-flashes began revealing the
conning-tower of a submarine. We had gone to Action Stations at once, of
course, and I am practically certain that the opening shot of the
fo'c'sl' gun was the first warning Fritz had that his little kultur
course was about to be interrupted. Under the circumstances, the fact
that he effected his disappearing act in from thirty to forty seconds
indicates very smart handling; too smart, indeed, to give us a fair
chance to get in a hit with a shell, although the gunners made a very
keen bid for it. Their turn came a few moments later, however.

"Once Fritz had passed from sight there was only one thing to do, the
thing we _tried_ to do to-night--depth-charge him. And there really was
no difference in what we did on the one occasion and what we did on the
other--nothing, I mean to say, except the result. Estimating his course
from the point of submergence, I steered directly over where I judged he
would be and let go one of those very useful type '----' charges.
Well,"--the captain smiled in a deprecatory sort of way--"the
depth-charge isn't exactly what you'd call a 'weapon of