Unless I lose my guess we are going to
get pretty close to the Boche with this old boat of theirs."
And then "Little Mack" confided to Jack that the German code book
had been captured with the U-boat, and that, furthermore, the U-91
had shipped as her wireless chief a former secret-service chap, Hal
Bonte, who had worked for a time in the offices of a German-American
steamship line in New York and knew the German language "like a
breeze."
"Of course the U-91 has been re-named," continued the captain. "She
will be known hereafter in the navy department records as the _Monitor_.
You remember what that other _Monitor_ did."
And Jack, of course, recalled at once the famous battle in Hampton
Roads during the Civil War when the little cheesebox of John Ericsson
had whipped the much touted _Merrimac_ after the Confederate terror
had completely dominated the Federal fleet and for a time wrested the
prestige of the sea from the Union.
"Pretty good record to live up to," commented Jack as he recalled the
feats of the famous little Ironsides that had saved the day for the
Union.
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