DID TE HAPPEN!
Another story to keep you guessing.
THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1959.
ADMIRALTY
EXPERT
Page
MARQUIS Sherries
& Ports
The ono - man submarine went
on sinking. 1 started the motor and pulled the joystick right back
but
nothing seemed
to happon
• Es
EBY
DAVID
HOWARTI
the Training Lieut- "HULLO, Howarth,”
commander said, "I'm delighted to see you. Now you can tell us all the mistakes we're making." a sub- This was extremely queer, because I was lieutenant RNVR, which is generally supposed to be the lowest form of life, and I was joining his ship, I thought, for a short beginner's course in one-man submarines. She was a converted mer- chant ship, lying in a sea loch, in the west of Scot-that driving the things was just
someone child's play for land, and we were stand-brainy as me. To be on the safe ing on deck among aside, I did persuade him to lend me a diagram and 1 studied i litter
baby of
sub- that night in my cabin. I had never
The submarine was about 15ft, marines.
Готов
far as I remember, and seen one before, or been about two feet in diameter, with to sea in any kind of a steel dome in the middle with narrow horizontal-all windows submarine.
In it. You sat with your legs in the body of it and your head in the dome.
The lieutenant commander took me to the wardroom and gave me a pink gin and said: "The trouble with you experts is us you don't come to see often enough."
I really did try hard to tell him I wasn't an expert, at least not in une-man submarines; but he laughed that off as muck- modesty.
An attack "Anyone can drive them," he sold. "What we want to know is what you Adiniralty fellows are going to use them for."
There is a moral to this story, and i might as well state it at once: Dun't let your head be turned by gln and flattery, even from someone so superior as a lieutenant commander. The trouble was that I did know what his submarines were guing to be used for.
1s
The baste controls were certainly simple; an air croft joystick for sicering horizontally and up and down control for the and a speed electric motor,
David Howarth has written two best sellers, The Shetland Bus and We Die Alone,; The first of these was the record of his own experiences as an RNVR officer involved in gun- running in Norway. Before the war he was a BBC Talks Producer, Now he lives at Westerkam, in Kant, with his wife and three children.
Then he clanged the lid down
out of this. If not, there isn't,"
I know that was the right knob. on top of me and I locked it.
off the It mat turn anti-clockwise.
I completely shut sounds arom outside, the bustle There was no reason why they the lap of water. and volces and machinery
A
and should have fitted any other
klad.
I felt 11 all over very carc- There was narrow view fully. It was very snail, about a radio knob, and through the all windows, a few the size of inches above the water. I there were two thin pipes lead- recognised the joystick between ing away from it, but I could not and reach for enough to trace where my knees, and the knobs levers from the drawing. There they went to,
pass and a clock. was a depth gauge, and a com-
Curious sight
K
Fragile thing
It seemed a fragile thing, and,
was the right cock it was I felt above my heud
and full of high-pressure air. I could pulled the lever to submerge feel it all bend when I twisted and the boat slowly began to hard, and I was afraid if I Small waves tapped iried too hard I would break it sink, against the windows, then the and be killed stone dead by the water covered them, and I saw air pressure it would relense in the curious sight of the surface the hull of the boat, of the sea from underneath.
But after another long pouse Before I had time to admire to think I couldn't see any alter- it much, it disappeared out of native to brute force. I took off sight above me. Then there my shoe and hit the knob. That was nothing outside but a green did no good. Then I took out my light. It seemed to be fading, - handkerchief and tur isted it rather quickly. Slightly sur round the knob to get a better prised, I looked at the depth grip, and put all my strength
the gauge. It said 25 feet, and needle was going round as fast Д na the second hand of a watch,
Above one's head in the dome was a lever which let air out of the ballast tanks to submerge and down on the right was small knob which Jel com- pressed air out of a cylinder to blow the tanks when you want
ed to surface.
Before I had collected my wits, was pitch dark, except
depth
for the needle of the gouge, which was luminous. watched it go right round the dial to 50 feet, which was as far would as it could go.
an
on it.
Suddenly something gave way. And after taking a second to discover I wasn't dead, 1 henr
air hissing into the tanks.
I After it had hissed for a bil, There were a lot of other gadgets which I didn't reckon I
it begun to bubble, and I de- would have to bother with, and
duced that the tanks were full of mir and overflowing. I tumed there was o tap which
-the air off, and the dead silence, in the submarine food
The boat went on sinilug.: returned. But the nose stayed emergency,
the pressure inside was equal to the pressure started the motor and pulled the filled down. I waited, in the Joystick right back; but nothing hope that she was rising slowly, outside.
Then, in theory, you could seemed to happen. After a very but I really know what had hap- and long time, there was the faint penod: even with full buoyancy.. open the lid of the Bome
stili stuck in the escape. The Neulenant-com- est jar, and the boat tilted down the wag
by the nose. She was on the mud, I tried to rock her from mander pointed it out to me. "1
side to side, bu! in the dark 1 shouldn't turn that unless you bollom.
want 10," really
he Jald, "Nubady'a irled it yet."
Next morning
I think it was the abruptness could not tell if she was may-
ing, of it all that was most alarming,
my
In fact, I.had been told to plan
the sudden transition from the The effort made me breathe an attack by them, and that was
cheerful activity and the sun faster, and I thought of the why I had asked for a chance to try them for myself. But, uf So the next morning, when flight and the paternal CPO and oxygen I was using, so I stopped own ridiculous self-con- and just eat there. I could not course, the plans were secret, was handed over to a chief petty adence: from that to the think of anything else to do. I and I hadn't been told I could officer and ค submarine was absolute darkness and silence of wondered about the tap which tell him about them. The more hoisted over the side for me. I the bottom of the sea, to being no one had ever tried. Then, for secretive I became, the more he went down the ladder sodden irretrievably lucked in and alone no reason at all, I felt her come was convinced of my superior with fultery and confidence. I in a space so confined that one unstuck. Whitehall wisdom.
wriggled down through the open couldn't move more than a man Looking back, I can see it was done. For someone over six feel, in a coffin. only common sense fur him to it was like getting into a small assume that anyone working on sports car. operational plans for
1
I didn't know how long it would take them to find me and
The CPO took my cap; it was dredge me up, if they could find specialised weapon would know
for me at all, or how long the air how the weapon worked. But, as obvious there wasn't room
are it on my hend.
was supposed to last. I didn't we all know now, things seldom so simple in warlīme. "Beller submerge alongside know how deep I wus, except be that I was much deeper than the Anyhow, I almost began to for a couple of feet, sir,"
depth gauge was meant to go. believe what he seemed to imply; said, "just to check her trim."
I was very frightened.
JACOBY on BRIDGE
Many Conventions North could have
Fix Slam Soup
to
E game was match point THE
duplicate nad North and South, were experia playing to gether for the first time. Need- ness to say cach was out impress his partner and there fare North suspected a psychic when West was able to over call his partner's opening heart, bid:
WEST.
NORTH MAQ 10043
VAK72
+ AS3
A None
EAST
4875
18
3
པན་ 0013
31072 4Q108843 AJD75
BOLTH (D)
4K92
❤QJ100B4
KQ
KJ
North and South vulnerable
↑
The diagram
Depth gauge
She went up nearly sa quickly When as she had gone down. she got to 50ft, the depth gauge gavo a jerk and began to fall so fast that a new worry put all the others out of my head. I remembered the ship above me, What would happen if hit it hard on its bottom?
I imagined getting langled up underneath 11, with the sub- But anyhow I remembered the marine dented and leaking. Su diagram. There were/ three I lot out some air from the knobs on the right-hand side, tanks, and the rate of ascent and the middle one was the one slowed down.
which blew the tanks. I felt for Just as it was getting light,
bid seven them and found the middle one the depth gauge stopped moving heurts right owny but decided and tried to turn it. It would not and I glanced out of the slit and to check for kings first os an❘ turn all. I tried to think of saw an enormous propeller a few extra precaution.
all the air cocks I had seen, 1 teel in front of me, and then kad pushed it and pulled it, and-tried she began to sink again, This to turn it backwards, but it time she went slower, but she would not move in any direction, was on the bottom again before and nothing happened.
I could get the air knob to turn,
Unfortunately,
South
also played that the five no- trump check for kings guaran teed that the partnership pos- sessed all four aces so South now went from seven hearts to zeven no-trump. He wanted that extra 10 points for a Lop score.
Strangely enough he got a muper top score. West doubled the slam and East decided that the bid elled for an unusual lood. He chose the lack of diamonds so his unusual lead weni and the entire club suit to sleep.
Q-The bidding has been: South West North Earl
Pass
You, South, hold:
AAKSI VEJ2 47 JAK JUS
The panic of being shut in is In telling this story I have the a most disagreeable sensation, same difedty thriller writers it started to rise in me and 1 have everyone knows our hero started to talk to myself, which gets out in the end. I have to I do not remember ever having admit that the next time I got lone before. 1 said: "If you the submarine to rise 1 keep your head there's a way beginning to get the hang of her. She came up at a more decorous stendled her at 30 speed, and feet and started the motor,
CHESS
by LEONARD BARDEN
1
Paki
312
14
Pasa 34
Pasa
3
Pas 44
Pana
4 N.. Рава
Pass
+
Bouth
IM
Weat North East 2
34
Past
ទេ។ Pass
B
Peti Pass 7N.T. Double Pats Pas
Opening lead—◆ J
4 N.T. Pas
7
ANT. PAUS
Pass Pass
When Sculli rebid, to three henris. North knew that he had an opening bid and checked for aces by means of the Blackwood tour'no-trump. Once Bouth agreed plint "he beld no aces,
What do you do now?
A-Bia five no-trump to tell your partner that you have ike sider two sons. If he bida noven you will like it. If he blđu nix clube you will pass and if he Dids six diamonds to show » klor yon will bld alx no-trump.
TODAY'S QUESTION -You bold ila same band. Your partner has responded ona dlan. mind to your opwing club bld. What do you do?
Answer' on Monday
Blora la problem specially contributed by F. L. Baxter (Chondle). White to play and mate in two mores,
Solution No. 5677; # KtXP/ xXR oh, KXE:1 £87 ch I-BU Reaigns.
Pondon #apres Bircks
Like a cork
Was
I even remembered to steer a course towards the middle of the Icch. Then I hiew the tanks and bobbed up like a cork. I had been down there 20 minutes.
Feering round, I saw a crowd of men staring with interest at the spot where I had aunk. Among them was the lieutenant- commander, 1boking rather pale and not very pleased. I motored alongalde. The chief petty officer Bfted the ild off me,
"Thought you were a goner, sir,” he said."
He was still holding my cap.
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
• Put your ich in the Boost, the anewte le on.
"(London: Exprys Benje)
“Balter submarge `alongsida, Sir.” - -
Just Fancy That!
London
Six ravens lap around the tower grounds among the Beef- THERE'S a job opening at the Tower of London for a raven. eaters and fur-halled Guardsmen. . They have been there since anyone can remember, and the Tower dates from the 12th Century. Cora, Corax, Cronk, Guno, and Garvle are stilt on motive duly, but as for Kala, nevermore, · Kala is dead and a new bird is needed.
Pay is two shillings four penco a day, which is used to buy meat and scraps for the ravena,
Amontillado Sherg
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