I waited in vain by the tubes for the
expected explosion--nothing happened, but after a couple of minutes a
snarl came down the voice pipe: "Surface, GUN ACTION STATIONS!"
I ran aft, and found the Captain white with rage.
"Missed ahead!" he said, with intense feeling, "I'll have to use that
confounded gun."
In about three minutes the Captain and myself were on the bridge and
the crew were at their stations round the gun.
For the first time I saw the ship; she was stern on and apparently
painted with black and white stripes. As I examined her through
glasses--she was distant about 3,000 yards--I saw a flash aboard her
and a few seconds later a projectile moaned overhead and fell about
6,000 yards over. So she is armed, thought I, and she has actually
opened fire on us first.
The effect of this unexpected retort on the part of the Englishman was
to throw Weissman into a paroxysm of rage.
"Why don't you fire? What the devil are you waiting for?" etc., etc.,
were some of the remarks he flung at the gun crew.
I did not consider it advisable to mention to him that they were
probably waiting his order to fire, and also his orders for range and
deflection, as I had imagined that, here as everywhere else, an officer
controls the gun-fire. Apparently in this boat it is not so, as
Weissman takes so little interest in his gun that he affects to be, or
else actually is, ignorant of the elements of gun control.
At any rate, under the lash of his tongue, the gun's crew soon got into
action, the gun-layer taking charge.
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