Unfortunately, there had been no information as to which direction the ships would go once they left Tsingtao. Rich and Keith had theorized that they would turn sharply left and proceed to the northeast along the coast of the Shantung Peninsula. At dawn, they argued, the Japanese would turn east or even southeast. Remaining close to the shore line would render them immune to radar detection from any submarine patrolling off the harbor entrance and thus prevent, or reduce, the opportunity for such a sub to position itself along their daylight track later on.
But there was no assurance this was correct. The convoy might head directly east upon clearing the harbor — this was, after all, the quickest way across the Yellow Sea. If so, they would be detected by Whitey Everett’s surface search radar as soon as the ships were clear from land return. From his patrol station seven miles out, Whitey would have the option of making a night surface attack or following them from ahead to attack submerged after daybreak.
Eel’s inshore position had been chosen because she was virtually out of torpedoes. Unable directly to damage the enemy, she could at least track them, so stationing herself that the large troop ships, drawing twenty-five feet or more, would have to pass to seaward of her. With land only a mile away, no enemy radar could detect Eel against the clutter. The convoy’s escorts logically would patrol on its seaward side during this initial phase of the passage.
Eel’s presence very close to shore would be least anticipated by the enemy, and at the same time safest from detection. But Richardson could not help noticing his own quickened pulse, and he knew his must not be the only one. A submarine’s sole protection — her entire capability of surviving in enemy waters — was her ability to dive when detected or attacked. This he had given up. More, he had argued the wolfpack commander into reluctant acquiescence. Were his calculations to be wrong, were his estimate of enemy intentions and capabilities incorrect, Eel might be caught on the surface with no way out except a running gun battle while she dashed for deep water.
This was the reason for preparing the forty-millimeter guns for action, and for the warning given to the rest of the ship’s company. The bridge twenty-millimeters and fifty-caliber machine guns also had been rousted out of their stowages and mounted. Ammunition for all guns had been brought up and placed in readiness near each.
Below, ammunition for both five-inch guns had been taken out of the magazines and laid out on deck in the crew’s dinette and in the control room under the gun access trunk. The two men detailed to the fifty-caliber machine gun from the forward torpedo room hatch were standing by, probably sitting on a bunk immediately beneath the lower trunk hatch. A third man with a telephone plugged into a phone jack inside the trunk — its wire led upward past the lower hatch — would be waiting with them. On orders from the bridge, all three would enter the trunk, pull up the loop of the telephone wire, and shut the lower hatch. On further orders they would fling open the top hatch and open fire in any ordered direction except astern. They had, however, been rigorously briefed that they were not to open the hatch until direct orders had been received from the bridge, which would not be given if an immediate dash toward deeper water was contemplated. In Eel’s present condition, even with bow planes rigged out and given a slight upward inclination, there was still entirely too much chance that a burst of speed might drive the submarine’s bow under.
Time was passing extraordinarily slowly, thought Richardson, for the third day in a row and the tenth time this particular night. As 2 o’clock approached, another fruitless vigil was becoming increasingly probable. Blunt had gone below. He, at least, was now sleeping regularly. Strange; his hypertension had been replaced by the opposite: almost a lethargy. After a while Richardson had sent Keith down also to try to get some rest. Morning twilight would begin about 6 o’clock. It was approximately an hour’s run at high speed to seaward to reach water deep enough for diving. To allow a little margin, it had been decided to move out at 4:30, shortly after the change of the watch section.
If Japanese ships came out of harbor and turned up the coast line, as appeared their most likely course, it would be Eel’s duty to provide sufficient information to permit Whitefish to parallel the Japanese ships from off shore, in deep water. When they turned to the east or southeast, as ultimately they would have to do, Whitefish would have been positioned to the best possible advantage for a submerged attack at daylight.
It had taken a great deal of persuasion to cause Captain Blunt to believe that he had given the final approval and the implementing order. Much effort had been expended in planting the idea and disposing of all others. The clinching argument, as it turned out, concerned the idea that Eel, with only two torpedoes remaining, both of them aft, might possibly be directed to return to base. In view of this, Richardson suggested, Blunt might consider shifting over to the Whitefish. As wolfpack commander, with primary responsibility for the blockade of Tsingtao, he would of course wish to remain on the scene. The idea agitated Blunt, as Rich knew it would, and he vehemently refused to consider it. He also refused to entertain the proposal which Buck Williams, by prearrangement, then put forward: that the two submarines rendezvous and transfer some of Whitefish’s torpedoes to Eel. The maneuver would of course require opening deck hatches, rigging booms, laboriously hoisting torpedoes out of Whitefish, dropping them in the water and then hoisting them aboard Eel. As Buck pointed out, the operation had been carried out innumerable times in peacetime exercises, and both Whitefish and Eel had the necessary equipment.
But it had never been done under wartime conditions, for a boat caught by aircraft with hatches open would be unable to submerge. Blunt had vetoed it on this ground, and also — Richardson had to admit this argument had some validity — that to deprive Whitey Everett of some of his ten torpedoes remaining would leave him also with empty torpedo tubes should he need to defend himself against antisubmarine craft.
The impasse had the effect of submerging the primary issue under two others of lesser substance. By the time the manner of Eel’s employment came under discussion, Blunt interposed little further objection. After that it was only a matter of preventing him from again dwelling on his flagship’s apparently vulnerable position.
“Permission to come on the bridge to relieve a lookout?” Every fifteen minutes one of the lookouts was relieved to go below to warm himself, drink a cup of coffee, and do a stint as a control-room messenger. This meant it must now be fifteen minutes after two.
For the past forty-five seconds Rich had been staring through his binoculars at the shadowy promontory which marked the entrance to the bay of Tsingtao. He opened his eyes wider, tried to will his pupils to expand even farther. Something had excited his interest in the shadows to the west. He tried all the tricks he had practiced since his first night watch, years ago, on the bridge of the Octopus: looking above the shadowy outline of the land, looking below it, swinging his glasses gently back and forth so as to notice any unusual discontinuity.