These raiders scoured the seven seas and whenever they ran across an unarmed merchant ship bound for any port of the Allies they promptly shelled and sunk her and, more often than not, without giving the ill-fated crew enough time to take to the life boats. As Bill Adams used to say, “I calls it murder.” Of course if the raiders could have taken their prizes to their own ports they would gladly have done so for Germany sorely needed whatever cargoes they carried, but the raiders could not do this for the Allies had blockaded every port of the Central Powers. This being true the next best thing to do from the German point of view was to sink the ship and drown the crew. There were two or three of these German raiders steaming up and down our Atlantic coast and they operated a few hundred miles off shore and out of the beaten paths. It seemed likely that they worked, part of the time at least, in conjunction with U-boats for whenever a ship went forth armed a torpedo sank her but if she was unarmed the raider’s guns sent her to the bottom. Uncle Sam was getting mighty tired of this sort of business and so he hatched up a little scheme. A small steamer, the _Henrietta_, was fitted out without guns, painted a sea-gray and flew the stars and stripes when she was sent to sea. Our submarine was sent with her, not exactly as a convoy for she was not sailing for any overseas port but instead she was sent out simply as a decoy. We followed her at a distance of about a mile and as long as there were no other ships in sight we ran light, though the way the waves broke over her she seemed to be running awash most of the time. This made no difference to us and it was a great relief to come up from our stuffy holes and walk the deck. Of all my sea-going experiences I liked this much the best. Why? You know how a city chap with a drop of red blood in his veins likes to get out in the woods and walk, eat and sleep on the ground. He does it simply because he gets as close to nature as he ever can and know about it. Well, when I walked the bit of deck of the _H-24_ I got just as close to the sea as I could and yet stay above water and there was a mighty fascination about it too. We cruised about most of the time in a light condition, though we occasionally had to submerge and tagged around after the _Henrietta_ which acted as a base, or mother-ship to us. It was a curious thing how merchant ships that made every effort to keep out of the way of raiders would run right into them and that the _Henrietta_ who was out for this very purpose couldn’t meet up with anything more dangerous than a sea-gull. But hold, matey, what’s that the Captain of the _Henrietta_ sends over by wireless? We can’t see the ship for we set too close to the water but he can make it out very well with his glasses. We dive until we are completely submerged but still following in the wake of the _Henrietta_ according to a prearranged scheme.