German submarine

The German submarine is the armed vessel that emerges beneath Emma and Jacob during their attempt to recover the birdcage. Its sudden arrival reveals that the cage’s apparent recovery is not a safe conclusion to the lighthouse confrontation: a Wight crew member takes a bird from it, and the submarine’s sinking forces Emma and Jacob to flee while trying to save Miss Peregrine.

Appearance and Arrival

At first, the object rising beneath Emma and Jacob seems to be a huge whale or a ghost ship. A swell lifts them onto its metal-grated surface, where they cling to the grates as water washes across the deck. The lighthouse beam clarifies the deceptive outline: what looked like fins are a conning tower and a large bolted-down gun. Jacob recognizes the vessel as a U-boat and understands that its arrival is no coincidence; it is what Golan had been waiting for.

The Birdcage and the Wight Crew

Emma runs across the rolling deck toward the birdcage, still intent on retrieving it. Jacob sees an armed man emerge from the conning tower and tackle Emma away from the cage, preventing her from reaching it under gunfire. Once they surface beside the vessel, Jacob points out that the gunman is approaching the cage. In the lighthouse beam, the man’s blank, depthless eyes identify him as a Wight.

The Wight picks up the cage and rattles it. Its door hangs open, and Jacob catches a glimpse of movement inside that suggests there may still be hope of recovering what they came for. But the Wight reaches into the cage and takes out a single waterlogged bird. Another soldier whistles from the conning tower, and the Wight carries the bird back toward the hatch. The cage is therefore not recovered by Emma and Jacob; instead, the crew removes a bird before the submarine departs.

Sinking and Rescue

The submarine begins to rattle and hiss, and the surrounding water churns as it prepares to sink. Jacob calls for Emma to swim away from it, but her attention has shifted to a dark patch of water near the stern. She resists his attempt to stop her and swims toward it. Over the sound of the submarine, Jacob hears Miss Peregrine calling.

Emma finds Miss Peregrine struggling in the waves and lifts her from the water. She and Jacob swim away as the submarine sinks, drawing the displaced water into a whirlpool that threatens to pull them under. They escape the current with Miss Peregrine, whom Emma has recovered, and Bronwyn reaches them through the waves and tows them to safety. On the rocks, Millard and Bronwyn understand the outcome they have witnessed: Golan’s body has fallen, the submarine has risen and sunk, and Miss Peregrine has emerged from the water, but Miss Avocet is missing. After the group recovers, they retrieve Emma’s canoe and set off toward shore.

Narrative Significance

The submarine turns the attempted recovery of the birdcage into a divided outcome. Emma and Jacob fail to secure the cage, and a Wight carries away one of its birds; at the same time, their attention shifts from the object they sought to Miss Peregrine, whom Emma saves from the sea. The vessel’s physical presence—its deck, conning tower, gun, and sinking hull—changes the scene’s stakes, making the sea both the route of escape and a danger intensified by the submarine’s descent. Its emergence also confirms the connection between Golan’s plan and the armed Wights waiting offshore, while its disappearance leaves the fate of the bird taken from the cage unresolved.