"Yes, Otto, yes," the other answered softly. The two men looked at each other. His navigator was closer to the Kapitan than anyone else in the ship. The Kapitan's voice dropped to a whisper. "Otto, how could you have been so silly?"
He turned away wearily. For a while he had even forgotten to listen to the zip-zip of the asdic transmission. He must gather up the reins. "Stand by Pillenwerfer," he ordered. He did not really expect it to be effective but at least it would give him the measure of the enemy he was up against.
Muller, the torpedo petty officer, had come from aft, having secured the stern caps of the torpedo tubes. He went to the Pillenverfers release gear and put his hand on the lever.
The Kapitan signaled and Muller's hand came down. There was a slight but audible hiss as the Pillenwerfer was ejected from its canister. "Let me know if the range increases," von Stolberg said through the voice pipe to Braun at the hydrophones.
They waited in tense silence. The seconds ticked by, became minutes. "Well?" the Kapitan asked.
"The range still decreases, Herr Kapitan."
Von Stolberg moved back to the center of the control room. To be depth-charged was no new experience for him, and he was far too clever and experienced to be caught napping.
"I will wait until the destroyer is almost above me. Then I will turn to port and double back on the reverse course, holding it for fifteen minutes. It is possible that we may shake him off. If we are successful, we will at the end of fifteen minutes alter course ninety degrees to starboard for a further forty-five minutes and then resume our course of two-one-oh degrees. That will mean" — he turned to the navigator — "that we shall end up on a parallel course three miles southeast of our present one. We shall lose almost one hour and a half. It is a great pity, but I would like to lose this fellow. He is too close to that which he should not see."
Now all in the boat could hear the throbbing beat of the destroyer's propellers. It grew louder, like a freight train coming toward one through a tunnel.
"Port thirty. Full ahead starboard. Steady on oh-three-oh."
The waiting men felt the boat begin to turn. The hum of the engines increased. In the dark depths she began to circle and retrace her steps.
Above her, the destroyer ran on blind, to drop her charges.
"Sweep astern," the Hecate s Captain gave the order to the asdic cabinet.
"Sweep astern, sir," Hopkins' voice repeated.
In three minutes the Hecate had left the circle of disturbed water fifteen hundred yards astern. There was still no echo that was recognizable as one that could have come from a U-boat.
Mystified and chagrined, the Captain brought his ship around to head back toward the position of the attack. The turn took a further three minutes. The U-boat, which could turn more quickly than the destroyer, was now making off at her best speed behind the curtain of disturbed water, and was already sixteen hundred yards on the other side of the disturbance and out of asdic range.
"No contact," the asdic cabinet announced.
"Carry out an all-around sweep." He had expected to find the real submarine echo coming out of the confusion of the bursting charges as a headland stands out of a fog. But his enemy had eluded him. The Captain was a very worried man.
The Hecate steamed back through the disturbance of her attack. The asdic beam, groping like the finger of a blind man, probed the sea around her.
"No contact, sir," the asdic hut announced.
"Try again." The Captain went to the plot and bent over it. "He's given us the slip, Pilot. I'll go to a position four miles to starboard of the attack and carry out an all-around sweep there. I'll go fast with the asdic housed."
He gave the necessary orders and the ship heeled over sharply under the impetus of the rudder and the thrust of the big propellers, now striving to work the ship's speed up to thirty knots. She vibrated all over like an excited horse. The wake began to form a long, creaming line astern.
The Captain went back to the plot. "Let me know when we are five hundred yards short of the position."
He climbed up on the plinth around the binnacle so that the cool morning wind could blow against his face. He felt tired, hungry and dispirited — but he could never show what he felt. Only nine minutes elapsed before the navigator called from the plot: "Five hundred yards to go, sir."
"One-five-oh revolutions. Steer two-one-oh degrees."
As the Hecate's speed fell he spoke to the asdic hut. "Lower the asdic. Commence transmission. Carry out an all-around sweep."
He went back to the view plot. "Pilot, if we have no luck this side, I'll try the other. I'm sure that he'll try and get back to his old course of two-one-oh. I think that, if he gives that up, he's almost as much a beaten man as if he'd been sunk. Lay this off for me. Give the U-boat a turn to port from the diving position; then allow for him steering a reciprocal course to his old one for fifteen minutes at six knots. Then let him turn for forty minutes to a course of one-two-oh at four knots, and then bring him back to his old two-one-oh track."
The asdic interrupted: "No contact, sir."
To the asdic: "Try again," and then, turning once more to the navigator: "I'll want a course and speed to intercept."
"Aye aye, sir." The navigator bent busily to his task, pausing every now and then to consult his slide rule.
"No contact, sir," Hopkins reported again.
"Very well. Stop transmitting. Raise the asdic." The Captain hurried back to the plot. "Ready with that course yet, Pilot?"
"One-five-two degrees at twenty-nine knots, sir."
"Good lad! Let me know when we are five hundred from the point of interception," and to the First Lieutenant: "Steer one-five-two. Two-nine-oh revolutions."
Once more the Hecate heeled and throbbed. As soon as she was settled to her course, the bow wave began to rise. The stern sank and a plume of white froth rose fanlike along her wake, where the terrific disturbance created by thirty thousand horsepower was dissipated in the ocean. The Captain, looking aft, saw his steward leave the after deckhouse and brace himself against the roll as he hurried forward and up the long ladder to the bridge.
The Captain went to the chart table.
"Your breakfast, sir."
"Robins, how did you know that I have just fifteen minutes to eat in?" Secretly the Captain went in terror of Robins, who treated him the way a nannie treats her young charges. He poured a cup of coffee and hastily began to eat.
"Five hundred to go, sir." The voice came from the plot.
"Thank you, Pilot."
The Captain nodded to the First Lieutenant. "Slow her down, Number One, and bring her round to two-one-oh." Then to the asdic: "Lower asdic, commence transmission, all-around sweep."
Once more the ping of the asdic was heard on the bridge as the ship's speed dropped. Ping — ping — ping — ping — PONG.
"Good God, we're almost on top of him!"
The asdic called excitedly, "Captain, sir! Captain, sir!"
"Stop jabbering, Hopkins! I can hear it — fine on the port bow. What's the range?"
"Four hundred. Bearing one-four-oh."
"Have you time to attack?"
"Yes, sir."
"Carry on. Set charges, two hundred and fifty feet. Stand by charges."
"Range three hundred" — followed immediately by: "Lost contact ahead, sir."
The Captain pursed his lips. The whole episode was pure luck. Given that his original deduction had been correct, it was reasonable to suppose that contact would be regained somewhere within four square miles of where the Hecate then was. But to find himself suddenly over the U-boat was like finding a pin in a haystack by pricking himself with it.
The Hecate shivered as the charges exploded.
The charges from the Hecate's first attack had jolted the U-boat. But bursting at least a hundred feet above her, and with the center of the pattern well on her starboard beam, they were no worse than many she had felt in previous forays.