During the days that followed, Jack and Ted found themselves lionized
wherever they went while on shore duty. News of the capture had
spread throughout England and France, and the censors had permitted
a generous account of the affair to be forwarded by cable to the
United States.
Letters and messages reached the boys, but none that pleased them more,
amid all the adulation heaped upon them, than a simple cablegram of a
few words, forwarded from Brighton Academy that read: _"Hearty
congratulations. We knew you would make good, and we are proud of you._"
"_The Brighton Boys_."
Closer inspection of the captured U-boat by American and English
naval officers proved it to be one of the very latest and improved
types of German undersea craft. It was a vessel of a thousand tons
displacement and more than three hundred feet long, capable of a
surface speed of twenty knots an hour and propelled by twin engines
of eight thousand horsepower. The hull was constructed of double
steel---virtually one hull within another---and the space between
hulls given over to the storage of fuel oil, thus increasing the
cruising radius of the vessel by permitting the carrying of more fuel.
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