Summary

Suddenly there is a message from the Commodore’s ship reporting a U-boat approaching at speed dead ahead. Krause issues a series of orders to prepare the ship and its crew for battle, taking the Keeling out of convoy formation and preparing to intercept. The narration again details Krause’s thought processes and considerations, inserting Bible quotes into the narrative as the two ships, the Keeling and the submarine, get closer together. Krause considers the options for timing an attack, the narration commenting that “the opportunity was his. So was the responsibility for refusing to take advantage of it” (36). He also imagines the reactions of the German sailors to the destruction of their ship (“the water rushing in upon them, in those few seconds before death overtook them as their boat went down, spouting great bubbles of air forced out by the inrushing...