reshing sea
air, and then with their sleeves turned up and flashing eyes to the
guns.

"Can you see any neutral signs, Petersen?"

"No, Herr Captain-Lieutenant. The entire hull is black. It's an
Englishman."

"The flag of war to the mast! The usual signals ready!" I called down
into the tower.

Immediately our flag of war floated from the top of the mast behind the
tower. It told the men over there: "Here am I, a German submarine
U-boat. Now for it, you proud Britisher! Now it will be seen who rules
the sea."

We had gradually drawn closer to a distance of about six thousand
meters. At last an enemy! After so many neutral steamers. At last an
enemy! An intense joy thrilled us, a joy which only can be compared with
the hunter's when he sees at last the longed-for prey coming within
range, after long and fruitless efforts. We had traveled many hundred
sea miles. We had endured storm, cold, and at times had been drenched to
the skin, and there, only two points port, our first success was waving
towards us!

By this time we must have been discovered by the steamer. Now our flag
of war must have been recognized. A ghastly horror must have seized the
captain on the bridge: The U-boat terror! the U-boat pest!

But the captain on the steamer did not give in so easily. He tried to
save himself by flight. Suddenly we saw how the steamer belched forth
thicker and darker clouds of smoke and in a sharp curve turned port. Its
propeller water, which hitherto could hardly be seen, was whipped to a
white foam, and let us know the machines had been put into the highest
possible speed. But it was of no use. No matter how much the captain was
shouting and how much the machinist drove his sweating and naked fire
crew to even more than human endeavors, so that the coal flew about and
the boilers were red, everything was useless. We closed in on him with a
horrible certainty nearer and nearer.

For some time I had been standing high up on the tower with a spy-glass
before my eyes and did not lose one of the steamer's motions. Now it
seemed to me the right moment had come to energetically command the
steamer to stop.

"A shot above the steamer! Fire!"

The granate landed two hundred meters in front of the steamer. We waited
a few minutes, but when the shot did not cause any change I gave the
right distance to the gunners and shouted the command to aim at the
steamer. The second shot hit and a thick, black and yellow cloud from
t