After leaving port the _Deutschland_ traveled submerged until they were far out in the North Sea on their westerly course. It was about two o’clock in the morning. Capt. Koenig thought it safe to rise to the surface and gave orders for the emptying of the tanks. But as the boat approached the surface it began to toss and plunge in a way that gave warning of a storm above. The nearer the surface the wilder the antics of the boat, which occasionally indulged in regular leaps. The emptying of the tanks went calmly on nevertheless, Capt. Koenig being of the order of men not to be moved from a purpose by so inconsiderable a thing as an ill-mannered sea. They got to the surface without too much disorder. Then says Capt. Koenig: “I was just about to give orders to put on the oil-engines—when—what was that? That dark stripe over there—wasn’t that a smoke-flag? _Donnerwetter!_ It’s a destroyer! “With one leap I am back in the turret and have closed the tower-hatch. ‘Alarm—submerge quickly—depth rudder—go to twenty meters.’ “The whole boat trembles and shakes under the increased pressure and makes a couple of real jumps; it literally reels in the wild sea. Will it not go down pretty soon? With a sudden jerk the _Deutschland_ darts below the surface and now, bending her bow lower and lower, rapidly descends into the depths. The light of the just dawning day disappears from the turret windows, the manometer shows in quick succession, two, three, six, ten meters. But the bow drops lower and lower. “The boat had bent forward in an angle of 36 degrees and stood on its head, as it were. Its bow rested on the sea’s bottom and its stern was violently swinging back and forth. The manometer showed a depth of about fifteen meters. I quickly realized our situation. It was something less than comfortable. “We were revealing our position by a peculiar buoy, and we expected momentarily to hear the crashing blow of a shell in the stern. But everything remained quiet. The screws could no longer betray us. Also it probably was still too dark up there, and the destroyer perhaps had enough of its own troubles in the wild sea. “There must have been a combination of several causes. Aside from the fact that only in the most extraordinary and rare cases is it possible for a big boat to submerge against a high sea, it is conceivable that in the haste which was forced upon us by the destroyer the tanks were not completely emptied of air. “But, above all, I recall that my first thought was the cargo. ‘Is the cargo safely stored? Can it lose its equilibrium?’ Curious as it may sound in retrospect, that is what I instinctively thought of. A ‘big steamer’ captain doesn’t easily get rid of his second nature, even on a U-boat. A WASH, A FEAST AND A NIGHT’S REST ON THE OCEAN BOTTOM