[Sidenote: Good weather at last.]
"Then we had three days of good easterly wind. By jingo, but the good
weather was great! Were we glad to have it?--oh, boy! We had just got
things shipshape again when we had another blow, but this second one was
by no means as bad as the first. And after that we had another spell of
decent weather. The crew used to start the phonograph and keep it going
all day.
[Sidenote: Reaching a friendly coast.]
"The weather was so good that I decided to keep right on to the harbor
which was to be our base over here. I had enough oil, plenty of water;
the only possible danger was a shortage of provisions. So I put us all
on a ration, arranging to have the last grand meal on Christmas day. Can
you imagine Christmas on a little storm-bumped submarine some hundred
miles off the coast? A day or two more and we ran calmly into--shall we
say, 'deleted' harbor?
[Sidenote: The men rejoice at food and baths.]
"Hungry, dirty; oh, so dirty! We hadn't had any sort of bath or wash for
about three weeks; we all were green-looking from having been cooped up
so long, and our unshaven grease-streaked faces would have upset a
dinosaur. The authorities were wonderfully kind, and looked after us and
our men in the very best style. I thought we could never stop eating,
and a real sleep--oh, boy!"
"Did you fly the flag as you came in?" I asked.
"You bet we did!" answered the captain, his keen, handsome face lighting
at the memory.
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