A slim bronze dolphin coursed the Baltic Sea one day last week, sped in a straight line for four miles with the accuracy peculiar to automobile torpedoes.
The German submarine commander who had loosed the torpedo as a "practice shot" had aimed at nothing. The torpedo, he knew, was empty of explosives. Routine-surfeited, he prepared to steam after it, to recover and recharge with propulsive air this highly expensive mechanism. . . .
Across the path of the still speeding dolphin a Danish sailboat tacked, jiggled. Like a blunt-nosed swordfish the torpedo punctured the...