We submerge
In neutral waters.
For a year at a time
We can laugh at the weather,
And if the enemy pins us down,
Our locators will cry out
For help:

Save our souls!
Anoxia’s making us delirious.
Save our souls!
Get out here now!
Come in, base, do you read? -
Our SOS is fainter and fainter.
And horror tears our souls
In half!..

Our aortas are bursting,
But surfacing would be suicide!
Just off our port,
Just off our starboard,
And dead ahead, too:
Wherever we turn,
A deadly horned mine!

Save our souls!
Anoxia’s making us delirious.
Save our souls!
Get out here now!
Come in, base, do you read? -
Our SOS is fainter and fainter.
And horror tears our souls
In half!..

But down here we’re free -
We’ve a world all our own!
Have we lost our minds?
Surface in a mine field?!
“That’s enough: get a grip!
We’re ramming the shore!”
Said the commander.

Save our souls!
Anoxia’s making us delirious.
Save our souls!
Get out here now!
Come in, base, do you read? -
Our SOS is fainter and fainter.
And horror tears our souls
In half!..

We surface at dawn -
Orders are orders.
If we have to die young,
We may as well do it in daylight.
They won’t give us medals for this.
We’ve got nothing left - nothing!
But remember us!

Save our souls!
Anoxia’s making us delirious.
Save our souls!
Get out here now!
Come in, base, do you read? -
Our SOS is fainter and fainter.
And horror tears our souls
In half!..

We’ve breached the surface,
But there’s no way out!
Full speed ahead for the dockyard,
Nerves strained to the limit,
That’s it for our cares,
All our ends and beginnings -
We bear down on those berths
Like one great last torpedo!

Save our souls!
Anoxia’s making us delirious.
Save our souls!
Get out here now!
Come in, base, do you read? -
Our SOS is fainter and fainter.
And horror tears our souls
In half!..