ten o'clock
I was pleased to find that we got under in one hundred and fifty seconds . The life of one 's boat may depend on this when a swift craft comes suddenly upon you . We were now within a few hours of our cruising ground , so I determined to snatch a rest , leaving Vornal in charge . When he woke me at ten o'clock we were running on the surface , and had reached the Essex coast off the Maplin Sands . With that charming frankness which is one of their characteristics , our friends of England had informed us by their Press that they had put a cordon of torpedo-boats across the Straits of Dover to prevent the passage of submarines , which is about as sensible as to lay a wooden plank across a stream to keep the eels from passing . I knew that Stephan , whose station lay at the western end of the Solent , would have no difficulty in reaching it . My own cruising ground was to be at the mouth of the Thames , and here I was at the very spot with my tiny _ Iota _ , my eighteen torpedoes , my quick-firing gun , and , above all , a brain that knew what should be done and how to do it .