"All right," said Flowers. "We have to go somewhere and Capri is as good a place as any. We sure as hell can't stay here now that he knows where we are. Sonar, belay the echo ranger. All ahead half. Course one three one. Let's try not to run into the son of a bitch."
Originally Springfield had proposed to Netts that Barracuda make a run for Capri, counting on Barracuda's speed to get her past any picket. Netts rejected that as too obvious. He suggested that Springfield hide the ship in the Gulf of Pozzuoli until the picket either was sunk or gave up and returned to the fleet. After eluding the picket. Barracuda would run north, pass through the Strait of Bonifacio between Sardinia and Corsica, sail down the west coast of Sardinia and surprise the fleet with an attack from the north.
The plan was dangerous. First, Barracuda had to maneuver in the bay and then in the shallow gulf without colliding with a submerged obstacle. To do this it was necessary to echo-range and thereby announce her location to Mako. Both Springfield and Netts found this unacceptable.
Sorensen provided the solution. The Bay of Naples was seeded with fixed sonars that transmitted sonic beacons on regular frequencies to guide ships in and out of port at times of low visibility. Sorensen demonstrated how it was possible to echo-range on the same frequency as one of the beacons. "All we have to do," Sorensen told the captain, "is time the pulse to coincide with the moment Barracuda is directly in line between the fixed array and the picket. If it doesn't work, we'll still be inside the ten-mile limit and he can't shoot us."
"If it doesn't work, Sorensen," Springfield said, "this exercise will be over in five minutes, not five days."
When Springfield submerged less than a mile out into the bay, he did the one thing no one on Mako expected. It was a most precarious gambit. The channel was barely deep enough to act as a sonar buffer, but the tanker coming through should provide enough cover to disguise his maneuvers.
Once underwater, Sorensen immediately picked up the tanker and the garbled but distinct sound of coolant pumps throbbing ten miles away. He logged it and told Hoek he heard only pumps and no gears or prop. He knew the sub was hovering, but the sound was too distorted by other noises in the channel for an absolute fix. Hoek, watching the sonar display on his attack console, guessed that the sub was under buoy number five, and busily plotted an attack.
Springfield took Barracuda on a wide sweeping turn to the left at very slow speed. When the ship was lined up between the beacon and buoy number five, he ordered sonar to echo-range once on the beacon's frequency. Sorensen sent one narrow-beamed pulse of sound out into the channel. A single blip appeared on the screen, a sub lying quietly at radio depth.
"Lieutenant, we've got him."
"Bearing?"
"Bearing one five one."
"Speed?"
"Zero zero, repeat zero zero."
"Range?"
"One eight five zero zero yards. He's under buoy number five."
Sorensen recognized her signature.
"It's Mako," he said a split second before the computer.
Springfield ordered, "All stop."
In the engine room turbine number one whirred to a halt. In the maneuvering room an engineer throttled back the steam. The main feed pumps, with less work to do, became as quiet as possible. In the heat exchangers just enough steam was produced to power the turbogenerators. Although with a loss in overall efficiency, the power from the generators could be used to run an electric motor coupled directly to the propeller shaft. The system had been devised to provide emergency propulsion if both main turbines failed. Barracuda would be slower than before, but she also would be almost totally silent.
When the propeller stopped turning. Barracuda's momentum carried her forward several hundred yards. By the time she came to a complete stop, her turbogenerators and electric motor were engaged.
With a clear picture of the bottom and the traffic in the harbor. Barracuda made a tight 180-degree turn inside the bay, carefully picked her way through the wrecks and silt mounds and crept north around the point of La Gaiola and into the Gulf of Pozzuoli. Sorensen informed Springfield that Mako held her southerly course. Making a great deal of noise with her own machinery, Mako apparently did not notice Barracuda's maneuver.
As soon as Barracuda cleared the point, Sorensen picked up the signal from the beacon attached to the hull of U-62. Most of the gulf was too shallow for submerged operation, but Springfield had studied the charts carefully and had determined that he could hide Barracuda behind the wreck. Using the beacon as a guide, Springfield cautiously maneuvered into a position that allowed the rusting hulk of the dead German sub to shield Barracuda from probing sonars. The ship hovered just above the bottom. Right on time the battery in the beacon went dead.
Sorensen kicked his chair away and stood at his console, listening to Mako conduct her search. After a few minutes she disappeared behind Capri.
"Control to weapons. Load a dummy in tube number one."
"Weapons, aye. Loading dummy."
In the torpedo room the torpedomen loaded a dummy Mark 37 wire-guided torpedo into tube number one.
"Flood tube."
"Flooding tube, aye."
Sorensen and Fogarty heard seawater rush into the torpedo tube. The ship tilted forward.
"Correct the trim, if you please, Mr. Pisaro."
The ship came back to dead level.
"Control to sonar. This is the captain."
"Sonar to control, aye."
"Well done, Sorensen."
"Thank you, sir."
"Now be quiet," Sorensen said to Fogarty. "This is a special treat. It's not often we get to lie quietly in shallow water like this. You never know what you might hear. Maybe we fooled that other ship and maybe we didn't. For all I know the Italians are going to drop sonar buoys right on top of us any minute. They go splish, just like that, sounds like a big fish jumping, and then they drop a Lulu and it's time to say adios."
Suddenly he sat up with a jerk. "Sonar to control," he said into his intercom. "Lieutenant, Mako is coming back this way, bearing one four three, course two five two, speed eight knots, range thirty thousand yards."
In the control room every officer experienced a rush of adrenaline. Mako was going to pass right across Barracuda's bow and give her a clean shot. Hoek was tracking the target on his weapons console, waiting for Mako's tangent to carry her beyond the ten-mile limit.
Navigating on a course that would intercept Barracuda coming out from behind the island of Ischia, Mako crossed the mouth of the Gulf of Pozzuoli at an oblique angle. Her side-to-side sweeping sonar would pick up Barracuda's coolant pumps once the angle cleared U-62, but it would be too late.
"Sorensen," said Hoek, "get ready. When I give the order to fire, you give them a blast with the target-seeking frequency."
"Yes sir, Mr. Hoek." Sorensen nodded to Fogarty. "You do it, kid. You blast 'em."
Fogarty watched the screen. "He's around the point," he said.
Sorensen held up his thumb. "Go."
"Sonar to weapons," Fogarty said. "Lock on weapons guidance."
"Weapons guidance locked on sonar," said Hoek over the intercom. "Tracking target."