The Diary of a U-boat Commander | Page 9

have, of course, never been to sea for any length of time in a U-boat,
and it is all very novel.
I find the roar of the Diesel engine very relentless, and last night slept
badly in a wretched bunk, which was a poor substitute for my lovely
quarters in the barracks at Wilhelmshaven. One thing I appreciate, and
that is the food; it is really excellent: fresh milk, fresh butter, white
bread and many other luxuries.
I have spent most of the day picking up things about the boat. Her
general arrangement is as follows:
Starting in the bows, mine tubes occupy the centre of the boat, leaving
two narrow passages, one each side. In the port passage is the wireless
cabinet and signal flag lockers, with store rooms underneath. In the
starboard passage are one or two small pumps and the kitchen.
The next compartment contains four bunks, two each side, these are
occupied by Alten, myself, the engineer, and the Navigating Warrant
Officer. Proceeding further aft one enters the control room, in which
one periscope is situated, and the necessary valves and pumps for
diving the boat.
The next compartment is the crew space; ten of the company exist here.
Overhead on each side is the gear for releasing the torpedoes from the
external torpedo tubes, of which we carry one each side. I think we
borrowed this idea from the Russians.
Then comes the engine-room, an inferno of rattling noises, but
excellent engines, I believe. At the after end of the engine-room are the
two main switchboards, of whose manner of working I am at present in
some ignorance.

The two main sets of electric motors are underneath the boards, in the
stern, where we have a third torpedo tube.
* * * * *
I had hardly written the above words when a message came that the
captain would like me to come to the bridge.
I went up in a leisurely fashion, through the conning tower, which is
over the control room, and reported myself. He indicated a low-lying
patch of smoke on the horizon far away on the starboard bow. I was
obliged to confess that it conveyed nothing to me, when he aroused my
intense interest by stating that it was, without doubt, being emitted
from a British submarine, who are known to frequent these waters. He
was proceeding away from us, and was, even then, six or seven miles
away, so an attack was out of the question. The engineer, who had
joined us, drew my attention to the thin wisp of almost invisible
blue-grey smoke from our own stern. The contrast was certainly
striking!
Over dinner I gave it as my opinion that the British boats were pretty
useless. Alten would not agree, and stated that, though in certain
technical aspects they were in a position of inferiority, yet in personnel
and skill in attacking they were fully our equals. He seemed to hold
them in considerable respect, and he remarked that, when making a
passage, he was more anxious on their account than in any other way.
He informed me that, on the last passage he made, he was attacked by a
British boat which he never saw, the only indication he received being
a torpedo which jumped out of the water almost over his tail. Luckily it
was very rough at the time, which made the torpedo run erratically,
otherwise they would undoubtedly have been hit.
What appeared to astonish him was the fact that the British boat had
been able to make an attack in such weather. We are now charging on
one engine, 500 amperes on each half-battery.
* * * * *

We are due back at Zeebrugge at 10 p.m. to-night. We should have
been in at dawn to-day, but we received a wireless from the senior
officer, Zeebrugge, to say that mine-laying was suspected, and we were
to wait till the "Q.R." channel, from the Blankenberg buoy, had been
swept. We lay in the bottom for eight hours, a few miles from the
western end of the channel.
Our trip was quite successful, but not without certain excitements.
On the night of the 23rd we passed fairly close to a fishing fleet on the
Dogger Bank, and saw the lights of several steamers in the distance. As
our first business was to lay our mines in the appointed place, we did
not worry them.
We burnt usual navigation lights, or rather side lights which appear to
be usual, except that, by a little fitting which Alten has made himself,
the arcs of bearing on which the lights show can be changed at will. His
idea is that, should we appear to be approaching a steamer which he
wishes to avoid, in many cases, by shining