THE SLEEPING SUBMARINE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 274, 11 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SLEEPING SUBMARINE.

The submarine lay "sleeping" on the bottom like a tired whale enjoying a siesta. When on the surface sne seemed a grey lump of pugnacity. Couched on the floor of the sea, she appeared so inanimate that the strange aquatic creatures which stared at her with round, unwinking eyes as the ground currents swirled them past her sides, regarded her with suspicion. Some of the more inquisitive of these dwellers in the deeps baited a moment, touched her with their neses, then scuttled fearfully away. A creature that remained so absolutely motionless, that headed tne oncoming water yet moved neither gill nor fin, seemed uncanny to them, and they gave her a wide berth. Inside the boat, where the electric light made a brilliant illumination, the submarines crew were whiling away the time after the fashion that seemed best to them, waiting a chance to be up and off in safety. One man softly touched a mandoline and hummed a lively ditty which he had picked up during his last visit to a music-hall when in port. The second coxswain sat absorbed in a weeks-old copy of "Answers," the golden cover of which was tattered by much thumbing and fingering all over from the wany brawny hands it had been tlirough during the boat's trip. Some of the " hands" stretched on the floor and snoozed as peacefully as if they had been in bed ashore-. Others swapped yarns about things that had no connection with war or war's effects.

Smoking not being pcrmissible } each killed time in his own way. The skipper, sitting by the periscope and talking with the "sub," displayed an air of unconcern, yet ono got the impression that for all his quiet indifferoncvo he was keenly alert, ready for prompt action.

"Sh-sh! Hear that?" said an A.13., (nodding tho mandc'.inist's arm. The music stopped as the thud of screws overhead penetrated into the boat. One of the sleepers on tho floor raised himself and listened.

"She's gone over us," ho remarked casually, then resumed his nap. Nor did any of the ethers pay greater attention to the incident. From time to tune the heat of moro screws came filter. iiig down to the boat, showing that vessels which the suhmarine had no desire to ni«'t were searching the waters about her. And while she thus lay ''doggo" to avoid them, never a one of her crew showed by his demeanour that he worried about the perils that encompassed him. Closed within steel walls from which there could be no escape if the worst happened, lying fathoms deep in danger-infested waters, unable to se/> anything outside their prison, though hearing much that was disquieting, theso iron-nerved men comported themselves as unconcernedly ,-is though they had been safe within the cosy shelter of a "stone frigate"' ashore.

How would you like to he mewed up in a submarine lying in hiding on th.• bottom of the sea until she could make a venture at slipping out of a verv

fgfit corner? Yet this is an experience which often hefal's some in that wonderfully efficient Navy that does ■<» much for von, though vou hear so little x' out it '