he had suddenly seen two white patches of foam 800 yards on the
starboard bow, which resolved themselves into the bow waves of a
destroyer approaching at full speed to ram.

We had dived just in time, and her knife-edged bow, driven by 30,000
horse power, had slid through the water a very few feet above our
conning tower.

Luckily he had not dropped any depth charges. We were not, however,
completely free of our troubles, though we had cheated the destroyer.

Examination of the chart, showed the bottom to be mud, and on
attempting to move the foremost hydroplanes, the plane motor fuses blew
out. This showed that the boat was buried in the mud right up to her
foremost planes, which were immovable.

The hydrophone watchkeeper reported that he could still hear
fast-running propellers, though probably some distance away, and as
this showed that our old enemy was still nosing about we were very
anxious not to break surface. We just blew "A." [1] At least we started
to blow "A," but Alten wisely decided that, as it was a calm night with
a half-moon, the bubbles on the surface might be rather conspicuous, so
we stopped the blow and put the pump on. We also flooded "W". [2] This
had no effect on her at all.

[Footnote 1: Probably their foremost internal tank.--ETIENNE.]

[Footnote 2: Presumably their after internal tank.--ETIENNE.]

We then pumped out "Q" and "P," leaving "W" full, and adjusted our trim