The First Sailing Vessel

Now we are heading towards the Bojana River estuary. Slowly we are approaching the Albanian coast. There, to the south, we make out a sailboat. "Surface! He probably wants to sail into San Giovanni. We'll try to cut him off." says the Commander to the Second who replies, "If he does have a motor." We try to get ahead of the sailboat with full power. Now it is time to dive if we don't want to be seen. That does not seem to be the case as we are catching up more and more. He is completely unaware of us. Now we dive to 8 meters and everybody in the boat is tense. Are we going to catch him? We are getting closer...now is the time.

"Surface! Start diesel engine! Man the cannon!" the voice of the Commander shouts. The air compressor is turned on and the diving tank valves are opened. "Ready to surface!" cries the Torpedo Master. "Blow dive tanks!" The compressed air hisses loudly and purges the water from the tanks. We are up in a few seconds. When the tower is barely above the surface the Commander opens the hatch cover and climbs out with the gun crew following him. The cannon is quickly readied and ammunition is handed up.

Aha! Now he noticed us and wants to make himself scarce. "Give him a shot in front of the bow!" orders the Commander. A short upheaval and then a high spray in front of the bow of the sailboat. Now he seems to come around. The sails flutter in the wind and he looses momentum. But look! Suddenly he is showing wake again. "Three shots into the rigging!" screams the Commander. "Now it will be right." he says as the sails are lowered. It tosses in the waves as we approach.

The Second and three crewmen get ready to grapple aboard. "One kilo-gram of Ekrasit (explosive) should be enough for this tub." he laughs. Over on the boat all are on deck with their hands up awaiting their fate. There were six men and two women. Promptly we put against larboard. The boarding crew clambers hastily unto the sailboat while the rest of us are standing ready with weapons drawn. The people from across shake their hands above their heads as they are lamenting. One makes a suspicious move and is instantly shot down by the Second.

Now the people get their lifeboat ready and climb down over the rope ladder. The women are very frantic but it was explained to them that this is war. After their boat was pushed off we inspected the cargo and found rifles, ammunition and a few other fine things onboard which they probably tried to bring up from Durazzo. The work progressed fast. The Ekrasit cartridge was adjusted and placed into the bottom. A few bottles of wine were found and brought back to our boat when the four returned. While the fuse was hissing we tried to get away as far as we could. After a few minutes a dull noise and the boat disappeared in the waves.

It was high time to get out of there. From the west, a cruiser was fast approaching. We could not make out their war colors yet so we dived and steered towards him. It turned out to be the Italian cruiser Guarto. When we got close to him he suddenly turned off and vanished in the direction of Durazzo so we surfaced again and set our course to the South.

We arrived near Durazzo in the early evening without spotting any other object. Here we charged the battery again. We criss-crossed in the vicinity the rest of the night but could not see anything. The sea had calmed down completely in the meantime and it was a great delight to be allowed in the tower to smoke a cigarette in total tranquility.

The next morning we did see some smoke in the distance but it was apparent that we were the only ones in the area. We took course towards North again where the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed it. Later in the afternoon we turned once more to the south. We just could not believe that there was nothing stirring around Durazzo.

Around midnight the alarm sounded. A destroyer was sighted, probably Italian, and it came fairly close. But that was not the right target for a submarine. They are going too fast and do not have enough draught. It was better that they don't see us. When we came up again he was out of sight.

In the morning we turned back North. Our time was up and we were homeward bound. We made it back without any further incidents. Stefan and I, who awaited our first action with such suspense and which had such a stormy beginning, had it now behind us. After we arrived in port we gathered our things and transfered back to the Villa Stein.

Now we got completely cleaned up, checked the mail and went to sleep. Never mind that the beds were not too nice or comfortable. After four days on the hard floor with only a thin blanket it felt good to stretch out with some straw underneath. Drsmicek and Stadler went on furlough and it would be time for us too for some recuperation. But three days later the XVII returned already, their periscope was leaking and he was blind. Since the XVI was also under repair we had to standby and take over the readiness for now. We got our things together again for when the V comes in. Then it will be our turn again. The talk about moving the station to Durazzo goes around.