singing and boiling noise of the submerging vents
vibrated about us. In my turret I fixed my eyes upon the
manometer. Twenty meters were recorded, then twenty-five. The
water ballast was diminished--thirty meters appeared and I waited
the slight bump which was to announce the arrival of the boat at
the bottom.

Nothing of the sort happened.

Instead of this the indicator upon the dial pointed to 32--to
33--to 35 meters....

I knocked against the glass with my finger--correct--the arrow
was just pointing toward thirty-six.

"Great thunder! what's up?" I cried, and reached for the chart.
Everything tallied. Thirty meters were indicated at this spot and
our reckoning had been most exact.

And we continued to sink deeper and deeper.

The dial was now announcing 40 meters.

This was a bit too much for me. I called down to the central and
got back the comforting answer that the large manometer was also
indicating a depth of over forty meters!

The two manometers agreed.

This, however, did not prevent the boat from continuing to sink.

The men in the central began to look at one another....

Ugh! it gives one a creepy feeling to go slipping away into the
unknown amidst this infernal singing silence and to see nothing
but the climbing down of the confounded indicator upon the
white-faced dial....

There was nothing else to be seen in my turret. I glanced at the
chart and then at the manometer in a pretty helpless fashion.

In the meantime the boat sank deeper; forty-five meters were
passed--the pointer indicated forty-eight meters. I began to
think the depth of the Chesapeake Bay must have some limit; we
surely could not be heading for the bottomless pit? Then--the
boat halted at a depth of fifty meters without the slightest
shock.

I climbed down into the central and took counsel with Klees and
the two officers of the watch.

There could be only one explanation; we must have sunk into a
hole which had not been marked upon the chart.[5]

[Footnote 5: (C)]

[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.

_A German Submarine in Three Positions._]

When orders were now given to rise, it was found that the exhaust
pumps refused to work. After a while, however, the chief engineer
succeeded in getting them starte