Serendipity is a cruel mistress

Pigboatcook · 02-15-15, 10:57 AM

Three large merchants have made the tonnage so far a welcome change but fuel begs us to head for home. One more leg of this patrol line and Seadragon will have to return for the barn.

We are slowly cutting through the moonless night at 6 knots. The lookouts doing their best but the blackness is thick. On a whim I put the boat at all stop and chance a turn at the sonar. Serendipity lays up a surprise. Large and small screws are racing in at our 180. Crash dive!

We just get under and we spin Seadragon 90 degrees and lurch back up to 55 feet. Up pops the eye. 1500 yards away a heavy cruiser leads her brood of escorts down the slot. We all hold our breath as she swims in and I mark her at 340 degrees and open the four tubes. One through four push out of the boat in a salvo to rake her sides.

One hits under the number one turret. Two slams under the bridge. Three catches her at the funnel followed by four close to her screws. All duds. May the engineers of the Mark 14 be loaded into the tubes next time. Maybe their hard heads will do more damage on the next patrol.

02-15-15, 10:57 AM	#1
Pigboatcook A-ganger Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 74 Downloads: 21 Uploads: 0	Serendipity is a cruel mistress Three large merchants have made the tonnage so far a welcome change but fuel begs us to head for home. One more leg of this patrol line and Seadragon will have to return for the barn. We are slowly cutting through the moonless night at 6 knots. The lookouts doing their best but the blackness is thick. On a whim I put the boat at all stop and chance a turn at the sonar. Serendipity lays up a surprise. Large and small screws are racing in at our 180. Crash dive! We just get under and we spin Seadragon 90 degrees and lurch back up to 55 feet. Up pops the eye. 1500 yards away a heavy cruiser leads her brood of escorts down the slot. We all hold our breath as she swims in and I mark her at 340 degrees and open the four tubes. One through four push out of the boat in a salvo to rake her sides. One hits under the number one turret. Two slams under the bridge. Three catches her at the funnel followed by four close to her screws. All duds. May the engineers of the Mark 14 be loaded into the tubes next time. Maybe their hard heads will do more damage on the next patrol.