"A patrol-boat, of course, does not carry a padre, any more than it does a number of the other comforts and luxuries provided in cruisers and battleships, and for that reason we hadn't been able to do very much in the way of a Christmas service. Several of the ship's company were somewhat religiously inclined, however, and these, in lieu of anything better, had asked for and received permission to hold a bit of a song service, in case there was opportunity for it, during the day. As the morning had been a rather full one, no suitable interval offered until their rather poor apology for a Christmas dinner was out of the way, and we were headed back to join the convoy. Then they went to it with a will, and for the next hour or more fragments of Yuletide songs came drifting back to my cabin to mingle with a number of other things conspiring to disturb the forty winks I was trying to snatch while the going was good. After a while, it appears, having run through their repertoire of Christmas songs, they started in on Easter ones, 'Bein' that they was mo' or less on the same subject,' as one of them explained to me later. They had just boomed the last line of a chorus which concluded with 'We shall seek our risen Lord,' when a signal was received stating that a periscope had been sighted by some ship of the convoy, and, sure enough, off they had to go to seek--well, I wouldn't take the Hun quite so near his own valuation of himself to put it as the song does, but all the same that quick new kick of the screws told me as plain as any words, even before I read the signal, that the old _Whack_ was jumping away to seek _something_ that had risen. "The convoy was dead ahead of us at a distance of about seven miles when I reached the bridge, and, the visibility being unusually good for that time of year, I could see all of the ships distinctly, as they steamed in two columns of three abreast. I was even able to recognise the _Amperi_ in the centre of the leading line. We were just comforting each other with the assurance that it was getting too rough for a U-boat to run a torpedo with any chance of finding its mark, when a huge spout of water jumped skyward right in the middle of the convoy. When it subsided, the _Amperi_, with a heavy list to port, could be seen heading westward, evidently with her engines and steering gear disabled, while the rest of the convoy, smoke rolling from their funnels, were 'starring' on northerly courses. "The alarm was rung, and as the men rushed to action stations a signal was made to the _Smack_ asking what was wrong. She replied, '_Amperi_ torpedoed; join me with all dispatch.' This, of course, we had already started to do, though the wind and sea were knocking a good many knots off our best speed. It was evident enough that the _Amperi_ had received a death-blow, so that we were not surprised to find them abandoning ship as we began to close her.