" SUBMARINE BILLY " 



happ\', when, after breakfast on the morning of 

 July 17, 1916, I saw another German submarine, 

 and felt pretty certain that it was all up with us 

 again. 



" My nerves had been broken altogether by the 

 earlier experiences, and I was badly upset now 

 when the Germans began to fire on the Wavcrley. 

 This we soon took to be a warning to leave the smack 

 — and we acted 011 it. Again our gear was up, be- 

 cause of the calm weather, so that we were abso- 

 lutely helpless ; we had not even the bit of a chance 

 of escaping which a breeze might have given us. 



" The vessel was perfectly still, so that it was 

 easy to get the boat overboard through the gangway. 

 We should have done that even if the commander 

 had not shouted through a megaphone : ' You have 

 got to leave your ship!' That seemed to be the 

 usual order with them. 



' As soon as our little boat was afloat we jumped 

 into her and pulled away from the vessel, leaving 

 everything we possessed. 



' Firing was going on all the time, but we were 

 not hit. 



" A very strange thing soon happened. The sub- 

 marine came up alongside the little boat, and the 

 commander, who could speak very good English, 

 astonished us by saying that he was very sorry for 

 what he was doing ; but he could not help himself — 

 he was forced to do it. He said, ' I was in the 

 P. & O. service for seven }-ears, and the English 

 people treated me very well.' He was honest and 

 he was certainly a gentleman. 



119 



