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By ALON BEMENT

Professor of Fine Arts, Columbia University, and Camoufleur of U. S. Shipping-Board.

THE U-16 and the U-21 since nine that morning had cruised slowly about in the clear bright sunshine of the north Atlantic. The water-tight hatches had been opened, and the crew had come on deck, and sat about in groups laughing and smoking, while the pure, sweet air seeped in and lightened the damp, heavy atmosphere from which they had come.

Three hours of rest they had had, and comfort and air. It was ten minutes past twelve, and the faint smell of cooking was just coming to them from below, when the U-21 signaled an enemy ship. It was but a faint smudge far down on the western horizon, but instantly there was activity on all sides. The crews hurried below, the hatches were closed, the engines stopped, and the two boats lay passive and quiet in the gentle roll of the sea, like sleeping beasts, while the tiny smudge on the horizon grew larger.

In the conning-tower of each submarine was an officer watching through powerful marine-glasses. On came the unsuspecting ship; and as it now became apparent, from observations taken, that it would pass to the north of them, the U-boats started their engines and moved slowly over to intercept it. Twenty minutes passed, when the U-21 signaled that it was no longer safe to remain on the surface. Slowly the giant U-boats settled, nosing their way beneath the waves until only a few feet of their nickel-plated periscopes remained above the sea.

Now that they were under water, the observer began to make further calculations; but it was not so easy, as the wind had freshened in the last half-hour and the sea was getting rough. The U-boat began to roll heavily, as all submarines do near the surface, and, while the field of the periscope is larger than the field of the ordinary marine-glass, it is still no easy matter to keep it focused on a far-away ship with the roll and pitch that accompanies

a heavy sea. To make matters more difficult, cross seas began cutting in between the ship and the observer, finally reducing his periods of vision to eight seconds each, while the intervals between were lengthened to twenty or twenty-five seconds. The periscope was extended to its entire length, but even that did not make conditions much better, because the higher it went, the more it swung from side to side.

The observer on the U-16 was not particularly disturbed, however, as the eyesight of the submarine is none too good at best. He therefore continued his observations, with only mild anxiety showing in his face. But after a few moments of rapid calculation his anxiety increased, and, hastily calling his commander to his side, he explained that while his first two observations made on the surface had shown the ship headed exactly east, his last one, through the periscope, proclaimed her going well to the north of that.

The commander took his place at the dial. He had seen many ships that had been camouflaged, and had laughed at the ineffectual attempts of the enemy to reduce their visibility by painting them in battle-ship gray, blended with other delicate colors. This ship presented no such effort at low visibility, however. Here was something quite different! Instead of being difficult to see, she was, in a way, advertised. She seemed to be painted in great stripes of black and in irregular masses of white and blue of such brilliant color that she fairly shone in the sun. He could see her better than if she had not been painted at all.

When the commander saw this 'he grunted in surprise and disgust.

"Bah, it's not camouflage-it 's an advertisement! What fools to think that would deceive any one! So like those stupid English pigs!" And turning on his observer, he shouted, "And you are a fool, too; yes, a child!"

He turned to the dial and made a swift calculation. It showed the ship's course even a bit farther north than his observer had reported.

"Yes, you are a fool!" he laughed again; "you are afraid even when you are right." Then he went on more earnestly, "But you must be more careful, as it is evident that your first calculations were wrong." He looked again. "Yes, you see the U-21 is more accurate; they are going north." And with a final grunt, he went forward to see if the torpedoes were in readiness.

The observer's mind was not at rest when he took over the periscope, neither did his face clear when he peered through it. The enemy's ship now seemed to be headed farther north than ever.

"What is it? Is she gradually turning in a great curve to the north? That is not likely to be!" he muttered, and searched for the periscope of the U-21. A quarter of a mile to the westward he could just make it out; then as he looked, it disappeared in a tumbling waste of water. She had made her last observations, and when she came to the surface again she would be within striking distance of the oncoming ship.

To the observer of the U-16 it now became apparent that the ship was a huge transport, heavily laden with troops, plowing steadily to the east. To sink her would cause great rejoicing throughout the Fatherland and bring a substantial reward in money; but as the commander of the U-21 was of higher rank, it was his right to attack first and the duty of the U-16 to come to the rescue if necessary.

The big enemy ship was drawing nearer; he knew her sharp eyes were searching the seas for periscopes, and that safety lay in getting theirs under. He called to the commander, and together they made their last hasty observations of the great ship closing in from the west, then dived to intercept her as she passed.

As the dark waters closed over her periscope the U-16 became totally blind, and the work of the observer was finished. Now whatever information came to her must come through the ears of a young

seaman who sat in a little compartment near the bow, with the receiving disks of a telephone clamped over his head. The heavy roll of the surface lessened to a gentle swing that would have been soothing had not the engine been going full speed ahead.

There was nothing to do but listen and wait. Every man was at his station; the engine men were clustered aft, and the torpedo crew forward. The torpedoes were resting in their shining cradles, ready to be inserted in their tubes. When the U-16 had left Bremen, there were fourteen of these death-dealing monsters on board; now there were but six. As each one had cost $8000, to waste one in an attack was a crime in the eyes of the German admiralty.

Their orders were to go straight on for eighteen minutes full speed, then wait for the sound of the discharge of the torpedo from the U-21. If an explosion did not follow, they were to rise and attend to the matter themselves. The transport would be easy prey for the U-21, but if, by some undreamed-of mischance, their torpedo should miss the transport, the crew of the U-16 were sure that they would be more fortunate. Aside from their purpose to "strafe England," the money prize for sinking a ship of this character would be large, and they began figuring out how much each man's share would be.

With the passing of the seconds, the excitement increased; time dragged; it seemed ages since they had submerged. The eighteen minutes must be nearly upno, only ten had passed! The tension increased; they spoke in low whispers, only to be stilled by some sharp command for silence. Only three minutes were leftnow two-and, finally, one. The moment had arrived!

They held their breath and waited with bent heads to hear the muffled 'discharge from the U-21. It did not come! They waited, and still it did not come. Something was wrong-were her engines running properly? The listener reported them as doing so, and added that she was on or near the surface. Two minutes

passed. The noise of the great ship was now so close that her sound was confused with that of the U-boat, and they must rise at once and strike or their prey would escape them. The commander gave the order. The U-16 turned her nose upward, when through the waters came a grinding crash that stopped every man in his tracks. Then, as they stood, their periscope came above the surface.

"The transport has run the U-21 down

are lost." He paused, then went on. "Can you account for the calamity?"

The observer hesitated, then in a low voice, as if afraid to make such a grave admission, said, "My commander, our calculations were faulty to begin with; we mistook her course."

"Yes, yes, that is only too evident," impatiently interrupted the captain; "but so did the commander of the U-21, the cleverest man of the under-sea's fleet.

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MODELS OF CAMOUFLAGED SHIPS PLACED ON EXHIBITION IN LONDON BY THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY. AT A DISTANCE EACH SHIP APPEARS TO BE FOLLOWING A COURSE OF ITS OWN, WHILE IN REALITY THEY ARE GOING IN THE SAME DIRECTION

and cut her in two!" fairly screamed the observer. "It has passed over her and is almost on top of us."

A sharp command came, and the U-boat dived-dived for her life, as time and eternity seemingly stood still. The roar of the ship came above them, beating in strokes that seemed to smother them. The blows of the enormous propeller-blades were like the breaking of a thousand torrents. Every corner of the hidden boat shook with the vibrations; the men grew sick with the sound. The U-16 lurched, heeled half over, then righted herself as the ship passed overhead and was gone.

Half an hour later the U-16 crept to the surface and scanned the seas. Far down on the eastern horizon was a smudge of smoke, but nowhere could they see any signs of the U-21.

The commander called his observer into the small compartment, which served him as office and stateroom combined. His air of assurance dropped from him as he closed the door and turned a haggard face toward his under-officer.

"The U-21 is gone, and her brave men

But how-how? We were all at fault, all made the same mistake; but what was that mistake?"

Again the observer hesitated: "It was the painting of her. Those accursed stripes of bright color! Her advertising was our undoing!"

"How can that be?" queried the commander. "You mean that the English did not try to make their ship invisible?"

"No, they wanted us to see her, but they wanted us to see her wrong. They did not paint her like a barber-pole for nothing. Those curious lines were for a purpose, and that purpose was to deceive us."

Then he sketched rapidly on a pad of paper which he took from the commander's desk, his superior watching him curiously the while. In a few moments he held up to view what appeared to be the outline of a staircase.

"Look at this carefully and tell me what you see."

"A stairway," answered the officer. "The upper side or lower?" asked the observer.

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"Exactly," replied the observer. "And that is what the new camouflage is aiming at. It is called ambiguous perspective. But you remember when I proposed that our admiralty should use it, they merely laughed at me for my foolishness, as they called it. You see what the stupid English have done with it!" This last was added with some bitterness.

"Oh, well, if they are using that method," said the commander, "our calculations will merely have to take that into account in finding the range; that is easy."

emerged from the inky blackness of the deep seas, in which they had been hiding, into a night every whit as black. There they waited for the great wireless voice from Nauen, which nightly sent them messages of the victory or defeat of their sister U-boats, and also gave them warning of impending dangers. Then it was, too, that they returned their own message, if enemy ships were sufficiently far away to permit of safe transmission of code.

"It would be easy, my commander, if it were not possible to make such an infinite variety of designs in this camouflage, as you will see," said the observer. Then he drew rapidly for a few moments. "Take these three rectangles, for instance, they are exactly the same shape and size. Now watch what happens. With lines drawn. so, the rectangle appears larger in the center, yes? With these, it is narrower in the center; and with these, it is wider at one end than the other." As the commander carefully studied the optical illusion, the observer went on: "You see no two ships need be painted alike, nor two sides of the same ship for that matter. One may be able to tell that a ship is off her course, and an expert could tell whether it be to port or starboard, but no one could tell how much or how little the variation was. Therein lies the danger."

That night, at exactly one o'clock, they

There they waited. When the waves of sound of that far-away voice finally reached them, it was to convey the following message, a message fraught with consternation and dismay.

"The imperial U-boat 47, attacking a large freighter off the coast of Portugal, was rammed and sunk. The ship was painted in conspicuous stripes of white, blue and black. Warnings are hereby given to all U-boat commanders to defer

THREE RECTANGLES OF THE SAME DIMENSIONS; BUT THE UPPER ONE APPEARS LARGER IN THE CENTER. THE SECOND, SMALLER; WHILE THE THIRD APPEARS WIDER AT ONE END

attacks on boats similarly painted until further instructions."

The commander of the U-16 stood in deep silence for a time before sending the return message, which read:

"The imperial U-boat 21 was rammed and sunk at one-thirty to-day by enemy transport painted white, black, and blue."

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