“And now down we go,” said McClure as he signaled to take in ballast.

Not waiting to note the effect of their fire, the officers of the Monitor sent their ship careening into the depths and went down to a depth of fifty feet with a greatly decreased speed.

“Guess we had better turn now and make for the open sea,” said McClure as he grasped the rudder key to swing the Monitor around.

But at that moment came a sharp rasping sound on the forward hull of the American vessel and then a mighty ripping sound aft followed by a grinding in the region of the propeller blades and an almost sudden stoppage of the Monitor.  McClure and Jack looked at each other, dismay written in their faces.

“Trapped!” ejaculated the little captain.  “We are caught in a submarine net!”

CHAPTER XXII

YANKEE INGENUITY

There was no denying the fact that the Monitor had become enmeshed in one of the German wire nets.

Unmistakably the scraping against the hull of the submarine was that of the cables and chains that composed the net.  Furthermore, it was evident from the manner in which the propellers of the ship had ceased their revolutions that they had struck an impediment of some kind.  McClure and Jack both realized they had, indeed, run into a snare of the enemy.

For the next half hour the Monitor was put through all manner of maneuvers as her captain sought to extricate his craft from the web of steel into which it had dived.

“Seem only to be getting in the tighter,” said “Little Mack” as he stopped the engines and from his chief engineer received a report to the effect that the driving shafts could be turned only with the greatest difficulty.

That which vexed the Monitor’s officers most, however, was the knowledge that their capture was almost certainly known by this time to the Germans ashore and that it would be a matter of minutes until a German patrol or some other vessel in close touch with the wireless ashore would be standing over the Monitor awaiting the time when the submerged vessel must ascend from the depths and surrender.  For it was well known that the submarine traps were equipped with electrical lamps floating on the surface that were illuminated automatically the moment a submerged vessel came in contact with the charged cables underneath the water.  Thus the light would engage the attention of either a patrol ship or the lookout on shore who would soon dispatch a destroyer to the scene.

Discussing this phase of the situation, Captain McClure had just decided to make a quick ascension to the surface and take his chances on freeing the Monitor of her entanglements before a German warship could come up; but at that moment Bonte reported from the wireless room the approach of a vessel to port, coming up at full speed.