Captain Bill
was sending her down as far as he could, as fast as he dared. Fifty
feet, seventy feet--ninety feet. Hoping to throw the destroyer off, the
_Z-3_ doubled on her track. A hundred feet.
Crash! Depth-charge number one.
[Sidenote: Depth bombs explode near by.]
[Sidenote: The submarine's peril.]
According to Captain Bill, who is good at similes, it was as if a giant,
wading along through the sea, had given the boat a vast and violent
kick, and then, leaning down, had shaken her as a terrier shakes a rat.
The _Z-3_ rocked, lay on her side, and fell through the water. A number
of lights went out. Men picked themselves out of corners, one with the
blood streaming down his face from a bad gash over his eye. Many of them
told later of "seeing stars" when the vibration of the depth-charge
traveled through the hull and their own bodies; some averred that "white
light" seemed to shoot out of the _Z-3's_ walls. Each man stood at his
post waiting for the next charge.
Crash! A second depth-charge. To everyone's relief, it was less violent
than the first. A few more lights went out. Meanwhile the _Z-3_
continued to sink and was rapidly nearing the danger-point. Having
escaped the first two depth-charges, Captain Bill hastened to bring the
boat up to a higher level. Then, to make things cheerful, it was
discovered that the _Z-3_ showed absolutely no inclination to obey her
controls.
[Sidenote: Anxious moments before the submarine rises again.
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