us to locate
ourselves.

We kept to our course up the center of the channel and trusted that our
lucky star would lead us straight. Every half hour we came up from the
safety of the deep and tried to take our bearings and then submerged
again, disappointed. The crew, of course, must remain at the diving
stations uninterruptedly.

About two o'clock the cook came around with pea-soup and pork in small
tin cups. He also stretched up his arms to us in the conning tower with
a steaming plate in his hands. I put the plate on my knees and dipped
out its contents, thinking "The wild beasts are fed." The moisture,
which forms in large drops on the ceiling during long trips under the
water, fell down on my head and into my plate and left small splotches
of oil in the pea-soup as a sign they were real drops of U-boat sweat.

We again arose to the periscope level at four o'clock. At a distance of
five hundred meters, a scouting fleet was moving about. At the same time
on our starboard bow a French torpedo boat with four funnels was
cruising around.

I had a desire to fire a shot at this enemy, but the fact that such a
shot would send the whole lurking fleet at us restrained me.

I have to admit that it was hard to hold back from taking the chance,
and it was with a heavy heart that I gave orders to dive again. But
this, however, saved us. If we had traveled at the periscope level for
only a few minutes more, I would not be sitting here to-day, smoking my
cigar and writing down the story of our adventures.

We were submerging, and the manometer showed seventeen meters. Then,
suddenly, it was as if some one had hit each one of us at the same
minute with a hammer. We all were unconscious for a second and found
ourselves on the floor or thrown prone in some corner with our heads,
shoulders, and other parts of our bodies in great pain. The whole boat
shook and trembled. Were we still alive or what had happened? Why was it
so dark all around us? The electric lights had gone out.

"Look to the fuse!"

"It's gone!"

"Put in the reserve fuse!"

Suddenly we had our lights again. All this happened within a few seconds
and more quickly than I can tell it.

What had happened? Was it true we were lost? Would the water rush into
the ship and pull us to the bottom? It must be a mine--a violent mine
detonation had shaken us close by the boat. And the U-202? What were the
consequences of this to the U-boat?

The reports came from all