ALTHOUGH OLSEN WOULD have been off watch at twelve thirty, his having dived the boat had prevented Soames getting any food in time to take over. So the Norwegian kept the dived watch while the others lunched, and had to postpone his own until they surfaced again.
Lunch was corned beef, and peas out of a tin, followed by a square of hard pastry with red jam on it. He was alone at the wardroom table; Chief was in the engine room, Soames on watch, Crawshaw asleep with his curtains drawn, and the Captain up topsides, getting some fresh air and adding his eyes and binoculars to the afternoon watch. ‘Getting fresh air’ was his excuse for being there; in fact, he was worried. Not entirely convinced that Olsen’s U-boat had been a figment of the imagination, in spite of what he’d said (what else c
