He saw on their steel decks round and protruding hatchways like chimneys through which groups of heads were sticking out.

The officers and crews were dressed like fishermen from the northern coast with waterproof suits of one piece and oilskin hats.

Many of them were swinging their tarpaulins over their heads, and the count replied to them by waving his cap.

The blonde sailors of the schooner shouted in reply to the acclamations of their comrades on the submersibles, "_Deutchsland ueber alles_!..." But this enthusiasm, equivalent to a song of triumph in the midst of the solitude of the sea, lasted but a very short time.

Whistles sounded, men ran over the steel decks and Ferragut saw his vessel invaded by two files of seamen.