.jpg)
U97
A play in three acts
by C.S. Forester
Act One
The First Act takes place in the smoking-room of the Naval Officers' Club, Cuxhaven ; the Second Act in the drawing-room of Admiral Reinhold's official residence ; the Third Act on board U 97, thirty-six hours later. The action is supposed to take place during the first week of November, 1918.
The smoking-room of the Officers' Club at Cuxhaven. It is a large room, at present displaying signs of considerable disorder; newspapers are lying unfolded in the chairs, the furniture is disarranged, and empty glasses are standing on one of the small tables.
The furnishing of the room displays a tendency to elaborate gimcrackery with a marine bias. Thus the central candelabrum from which hang the electric lights is a ship's steering wheel; a ship's bell hangs on a stand in one corner ; the pictures are largely devoted to ships of war—one of them is a representation of the battle of Jutland, while nearly all the others display submarines of various designs, on the sea or in dry dock or on the slips.
Facing the audience, and prominent but not dominating, hangs a portrait of Wilhelm II in admiral's full dress. On each side of this portrait a panel of the wall is covered with small photographs, all of them of officers of the Imperial German Navy.
At a small table to the R.C. of the room, Horn and Ritter are seated side by side. In armchairs L.C. are Lucas and Spiegel They are young men of much the same professional type. Lucas is distinguished by a single eyeglass and general elaboration of attire; Horn's right hand is bandaged. Spiegel wears the Iron Cross. All of them display by their attitude a condition of extreme mental depression. Engel enters by a swinging door to the left at the back. He is one of the club waiters, in messroom-steward's uniform, and he looks apprehensively over his shoulder as he sidles up towards Horn and Ritter.
Engel If you please, gentlemen. (No one pays any attention or relaxes his attitude. Engel sidles further into the room. He coughs, and continues in a louder tone.) If you please, gentlemen. (Lucas looks round at him.) Gentlemen, I might be able to find you a drink or two now, if you would like them. Lucas Very good of you, Engel.
Engel Thank you, sir. The guard which the Sailors' and Workmen's Council has set over the club cellars is ... ah ... has had his attention temporarily distracted.
Horn Yes?
Engel So I can get you what you want, gentlemen, for a few minutes. Of course it is a risk for me, sirs, as you know. (He continues without noticing the wrath of the others.) It's not money that I want so much, gentlemen. If only you would put in a word for me when the Committee of the Sailors' Union comes in again. Just say 'Messroom-Steward Engel' ... no, I mean 'Comrade Engel', of course ... 'Comrade Engel is the right sort of man', or 'Comrade Engel is full of zeal for the Cause'. It would do me a lot of good, gentlemen, even though you are officers. Well, gentlemen, what will ... Oh, I didn't mean any harm, gentlemen.
Spiegel Come here, Engel. Stop him, Ritter. Now, Engel, what the devil do you mean by addressing the Kaiser's officers in that fashion?
Engel I didn't think I said anything I shouldn't, sir. Horn 'Comrade' Engel.
Engel The Sailors' Council say ...
Spiegel Don't quote the Sailors' Council to me, man! Engel Sorry, sir. But it says ...
Spiegel Hold your tongue. Would you have dreamed of addressing any officer in that fashion three days ago?
Engel No, sir. Of course not, sir. But ...
Spiegel You'd have been in prison pretty quickly if you had, wouldn't you?
Enge Yes, sir.
Lucas Oh, this is just wasting time. We can't put him in prison now, can we? Get out of this, Engel. Let him go, Ritter. (Engel scuttles hurriedly out of the room.)
Spiege You had no business to interfere like that, Lucas The infernal scoundrel with his 'Comrade Engel' and his Sailors' Council!
Lucas But we can do nothing. It is the Sailors' Council that rules the roost now, as of course you must realize. Lay a finger on Comrade-Messroom- Steward Engel and we'll all find ourselves under trial for lese-majesté towards that Council. We must conduct ourselves nowadays with proper humility and respect.
Ritter That sounds as if you were fainthearted, Lucas.
Spiegel And none too loyal, either.
Lucas Even insinuations of that sort must pass without reply in the conditions prevailing at the moment. We brother officers must not quarrel now, of all times. Come, what sense or purpose was there in bullyragging our friend Engel and upsetting his precious dignity? All it did was to lose us our drinks. And I could do with one very comfortably now. (Hoffmann and Weber come in by the door on R. They are wearing greatcoats and belts, without swords. Every one turns to face them.)
Horn Ah, Hoffmann. Any news?
Hoffmann Nothing good.
Weber And plenty bad. There are not twenty loyal men in either flotilla.
Hoffmann The workmen in the yards have gone over too.
Ritter That was only to be expected.
Lucas Any disorder?
Weber Nothing obvious, at any rate. The harbor and the yards are quiet as a church.
Ritter German discipline leaves some traces behind, at least!
Horn But could anyone have believed it! That our Fleet — the Fleet we have given our lives to — the men we have worked for — should have come to this! Mutiny! Disobedience to orders! Sailors' and Workmen's Councils! It seems unbelievable! Perhaps — perhaps — it is even cowardice.
Spiegel Never. It is the work of British agents. (Meanwhile Admiral Reinhold has entered unnoticed by the door L. He is a burly clean shaven man of advanced middle age, with the Iron Cross low down on his left breast and the 'Pour le Merits' round his neck. His flag-lieutenant, Hempel, has held open the door for him and follows him into the room; he holds in his hand a photograph similar to those already on the wall. On noticing Reinhold's arrival the others come to attention.)
Reinhold No, gentlemen. Not British agents, but British strength. Keep a fleet in harbor for months at a time. Weed out the best of the men for submarine service — for our service, gentlemen. Oppress the rest, day in and day out, by a sense of an overwhelming power awaiting them on the sea. Then, when idleness — enforced for reasons they must come to know too well — has done its work, order them out, twenty ships against forty, certain death for nine-tenths of the men and captivity for the rest. Mutiny is all one can expect. But sit down, sit down, gentlemen. How often have I to say to you that this club remains a club whether a superior officer is present or not? (They resume their seats.)
Horn But it breaks my heart that my own men, of my own submarine, should have joined with those scoundrels of the High Seas Fleet.
Reinhold Nothing is so contagious as mutiny. Besides ... (He indicates with his hand Hempel, who is hanging the photograph he has brought in to one of the panels beside the Emperor's portrait.)
Spiegel God! Who is that, Hempel?
Hempel Erdmann.
Hoffmann Erdmann gone too!
Lucas It is always the best of us.
Spiegel Do you know how it happened?
Hempel No. Don't you see which side I am putting the photograph?
Lucas No hint of any kind?
Hempel Nothing. One or two messages and then ... six weeks without a word.
Horn Another of them. He cleared from here as light-hearted as he could be — I was here when he went, so I know. Now — depth charge or nets or a mine or the ram, or something new, something we know nothing about. The English knew their business when they decided to publish nothing about their successes against submarines.
Hoffmann One more unknown danger for us to encounter. Something else to have on our minds when we hear the propellers overhead and the depth charges exploding in the distance.
Horn You know that feeling, too?
Hoffmann By God, yes! The last time I passed the Straits, with searchlights lighting the surface like a dance hall and propellers raving this way and that, and I was trying to keep my head clear and my nerves steady, it came into my mind ... what was it the English did to Riedel just here, and Springer, and Weidemann?
Horn And you wait, and you wait, for it to happen to you as well. (There is a horrid pause.)
Reinhold (who is standing uneasily at his table, with a piece of paper in his fingers.) Gentlemen, I have some news to communicate to you. I must give it you here, since the mutineers have commandeered my office. We have heard from Berlin at last by ... no matter what means. A division of Landwehr troops is moving on the town. In two days this mutiny will be at an end.
Spiegel And one or two precious rascals will receive what they deserve. Horn All we sailors have to do is to thank God there are soldiers to keep our men in order.
Lucas But can the troops be trusted, sir?
Reinhold They can - for the purpose for which they are sent. Gentlemen, that is not all the news I have to give you. You gentlemen cannot all be ignorant of the situation on the Western Front. You must have heard of the resignations of the Imperial Chancellor and of General Ludendorff. Frankly, the army is in a state of collapse. That is why — as you must realize — the fleet was ordered out and this mutiny precipitated. Armistice terms are at this very moment being discussed, and any terms the enemy sees fit to offer will certainly be accepted. (There is another horrid pause.) Spiegel That means ... defeat?
Reinhold (shaking his head and gradually breaking down.) I wish that were all it means. It means — dishonor as well. Dishonor heaped on dishonor. (Regaining his self-control.) Gentlemen, I must inform you, in anticipation of any action you may see fit to take, of the naval terms which will certainly be agreed upon. They will make it necessary, gentlemen, that we, with our own hands, must deliver into British custody, six battle cruisers, ten battleships, a number of light cruisers and destroyers, and, gentlemen, one hundred and sixty submarines. Every one of you will soon be conning your commands into a British port for internment, under the orders of — some young British lieutenant or other. (There is a shocked pause, and then a general chorus of dissent, to which Reinhold listens with nervous patience.) "No" and "Never" are of little use to us at present. Sane thinking and prompt obedience are what are required of the German officer.
Spiegel Never, never, never! We can sink the ships whether the men will fight or not!
Reinhold That is not sane thinking. We cannot sink any ships. The High Seas Fleet is in the Jade and we are at Cuxhaven. If Commander Spiegel knows of a method of sinking ships thirty miles away it is a pity he did not reveal it earlier. Why, of our own submarines here in Cuxhaven we have control of only one — U 97. The mutineers have the rest under guard, and nine-tenths of the officers as well. We can do nothing of that sort.
Lucas So that you advocate submission, sir?
Reinhold Over there, stretching across from one side of our German Ocean to the other, cutting us off from the world, there lies an enemy's country. Forty Dreadnoughts enforce the blockade she has decreed. You know for yourselves what that blockade has achieved. You have but to go into the streets to see the shivering civilians in their paper clothing, and the rickety children. They have little on their backs and less in their bellies. They have begun to die of starvation, of actual want.
Spiegel The useless mouths!
Reinhold In modern warfare it is hard to define the useless and the useful. Remember, our enemies say we have not always discriminated. (Pause.) The nations we are fighting are drunk with victory. At any hesitation to submit on our part they will apply the screw — enforce the blockade. The fleet has been ordered out to break the blockade, and the fleet has refused. Logically, the fleet has now no alternative save tame submission to the dictation of the civilians and our enemies.
Horn A coward's alternative, sir?
Reinhold The only choice may be the brave man's as well as the coward's. But perhaps another suggestion may be forthcoming. I might, for instance, resign my command to avoid the humiliation of ordering you to surrender, so that some unfortunate captain would find himself given flag rank for three poor days to do so instead. You gentlemen might fall on your swords in anticipation of surrender—other officers would then have to be found to take your places. Would it help? Would it enhance our honor, or that of our service? The world has a poorer opinion of suicide than in the days of the Romans, and it has no opinion at all of cowardly avoidance of distasteful tasks. Our reputation at present is that of brave men. Don't let us do anything to injure it. (Here Krause enters by the door, R. front. He is clearly a little the worse for drink. He slouches across the stage with hardly a glance at the others and finally flings himself down into an arm chair, L. front, and his first action is to push at the bell in the wall beside the chair. The others eye him with distaste.) And, gentlemen, there is one more piece of information for me to give you. Another condition of the armistice will enforce the surrender by Germany to the Allies to what they are pleased to call justice of what they are pleased to call 'war criminals'. (There is an obvious sensation. Some one re-echoes the words "war criminals." They eye each other uneasily. Most of all they look towards Krause.) That is all I have to say, gentlemen. If these words of mine were ever to be recorded in history people would think they were the strangest ever addressed by an Admiral of the Imperial German Navy to a crowd of junior officers. But the present is a curious time, and, anyway, history will never record them. Commander Hoffmann!
Hoffmann Sir! (Coming to attention.)
Reinhold Lieutenant Weber.
Weber Sir!
Reinhold You will return to U 97 as unobtrusively as possible. Good afternoon, gentlemen. (Hempel opens the door, L., by which he entered. He passes out, followed by Hempel. Hoffmann and Weber withdraw by the door, R. There is a buzz of conversation among the four officers left in the center of the stage.)
Spiegel (moving restlessly about the stage.) And this is the end of our life's work. Disgrace and surrender! After fifteen years in the finest service in the world.
