Five Months on a German Raider Part 4

and did his best in his broken English to a.s.sure us everything was all right. "Go sleep tranquil," he said: "I see this s.h.i.+p built--very strong." But the whole performance was a horrid nightmare.

The next day was no better, but rather worse. About 6 p.m. there was a great crash, which alarmed all; it was due to the _Wolf_ cras.h.i.+ng into and completely smas.h.i.+ng part of the bridge of our s.h.i.+p. This was enough for the Germans. They decided to suspend operations, and at 7 p.m. the _Wolf_ sheered off, only just narrowly escaping cutting off the p.o.o.p of the _Igotz Mendi_ in the process. She had coaled six hundred tons in twenty-five hours, her decks, torpedo tubes, and guns being buried under great mounds of coal, as all hands were busy in the transference of coal from her prize to the _Wolf_. s.h.i.+fting the coal to her bunkers had to be done after the s.h.i.+ps had separated. If by good luck an Allied cruiser had appeared at this time, the _Wolf_ would have been an easy prey. The coaling process had severely damaged the _Wolf_, many of whose plates were badly dented. We had lost eighteen large fenders between the s.h.i.+ps, and the _Wolf_ was leaking to the extent of twelve tons an hour. The _Igotz Mendi_ had come off better. None of her plates were dented, she was making no water, and the only visible signs of damage to her were many twisted and bent stanchions on the port side that met the _Wolf_.

We had been allowed to send letters for Christmas--censored, of course, by the Germans--to our _Hitachi_ friends on the _Wolf_, and when the two s.h.i.+ps were alongside we were allowed to speak to them, though conversation under such conditions was very difficult, as one minute our friends would be several feet above us and the next below us with the rolling of the s.h.i.+ps; and the noise of the coaling, shouting of orders, and roaring of the water between the s.h.i.+ps was deafening. There did not seem much point in censoring letters, as the prisoners on the _Igotz Mendi_ and the _Wolf_ were allowed to talk to each other a day or so after the letters were sent, and although a German sentry was on guard while these conversations were going on, it was possible for the prisoners to say what they liked to each other, as the sentry could only have caught an occasional word or two.

I have since been asked why the prisoners and Spaniards on the Spanish s.h.i.+p did not attack the prize crew and seize the s.h.i.+p when we were not in company with the _Wolf_. It sounds quite simple, but it must be remembered that although the prize crew was certainly a small one, they were well supplied with arms, bombs, and hand grenades, while the prisoners and Spaniards had no arms at all, as they had all been taken away by the Germans. Further, an attack of this kind would have been far worse than useless unless its absolute success could have been definitely a.s.sured. There were very few young and able men among the prisoners, while the German prize crew were all picked men, young and powerful. The working crew of the s.h.i.+p was composed of Spaniards and other neutrals, including a Greek and a Chilian. It would have been absolutely necessary to have secured the allegiance and support of every one of these. The plan of seizing the s.h.i.+p, which sounds so simple, was discussed among us many a time, but it was in reality quite impracticable. What would our fate have been if we had tried--and failed? And what of the women and children on board?

CHAPTER VIII

RUMOURS AND PLANS

We had been encouraged by the Germans to think--they had in fact definitely told us--that the _Igotz Mendi_ with us on board was to be sent to Spain when the Germans released her. This news greatly rejoiced the Spaniards, who had naturally become very depressed, more especially as they knew that if no news were received of them for six weeks after the date on which they were due at Colombo a requiem ma.s.s would, according to Spanish custom, be said for them at their churches at home.

On December 29th, all of which and the previous day, together with many succeeding days, were spent in transferring our cargo coal to our bunkers, the Germans on our s.h.i.+p and on the _Wolf_ ostentatiously bade each other good-bye, and letters from prisoners on the _Wolf_ were brought to us to post in Spain when we landed. The idea of the _Wolf_ remaining out till the war was over in six months was abandoned, and we were told the _Wolf_ would now go home to Germany. Why we were told this--the first time we had been informed of the _Wolf's_ plans--we never knew, except that it might have been an excuse to keep dragging us over the seas, for the _Wolf_ would never have allowed us to get ash.o.r.e before she reached Germany. Now that we know that the Germans always intended taking us to Germany, it is obvious that it was quite immaterial to them if they told us their plans. They wished to keep us, and having told us of their future plans, it is plain they could not afford to release us.

But at that time we really began to think we were going to be landed in Spain, and the news raised the spirits of all of us. I remember Lieutenant Rose telling the American Captain one day during a meal that he could now keep his eyes directed to a Spanish port! Those who had been learning Spanish before now did so with redoubled energy, and some of us even marked out on a pocket atlas our railway route from Bilbao or Cadiz--for the Spanish Captain thought it most likely we should be landed at one of those ports--through Spain and France. We even got information from the Spaniards as to hotels, and railways, and sights to see in Spain. It seemed as if the end of our cruise, with our freedom, were really in sight, especially as the Captain had told some of us on December 16th that in six weeks our captivity would be over. Some of us, however, still inclined to the belief that the Germans would release the s.h.i.+p and order her back to Java or Colombo or Calcutta; while others believed we should ultimately be landed in Dutch Guiana or Mexico, two of the few neutral countries left.

On the last day of the year a rumour went round the s.h.i.+p that we should be taken far north--about 60 N.--to a point from which the _Wolf_ could get to Germany before we could reach Spain. That, in the opinion of most of us, put an end to the prospect of landing in Spain. The Germans would run no risks of our giving information about the _Wolf_. But this scheme would have left uneliminated one very important risk. After the s.h.i.+ps would have separated, there was still a chance of the prize being intercepted by an Allied cruiser before the _Wolf_ got home, and if that had happened the _Wolf's_ goose would have been cooked indeed. So that Spain looked very improbable. I approached the Captain on the last day of the year and spoke to him on the point. He confirmed the rumour, and said we should be sent back and landed at a Spanish island, most probably Las Palmas. I made a vigorous, though I knew it would be quite a useless, protest against this scheme. I pointed out that the s.h.i.+p, which by then would be almost empty, was not a suitable one in which to carry women and children into the North Atlantic in mid-winter gales, and that people who had spent many years in the tropics would not be able to stand such weather, unprovided as they were with winter clothing (although the Commander of the _Wolf_ had certainly sent over some rolls of flannelette--stolen from the _Hitachi_--for the ladies to make themselves warm garments!). Also that in case of distress we could call for no help, as our wireless would only receive and not send messages.

The Captain brushed these complaints aside, saying the s.h.i.+p was in good trim and could stand any weather, that it would only be intensely cold on a very few days, that arrangements would be made that we should suffer as little from the cold as possible, and that there was very little likelihood of our being in distress.

I then pointed out to him that our own Government prohibited our women from travelling through the submarine zone at all, but that he proposed to send them through it twice and to give us a double dose of the North Atlantic at the very worst time of the year. He replied that going north we should go nowhere near the submarine zone, that he was just as anxious to avoid submarines as we were, and that when we parted far up in the North Atlantic, the _Igotz Mendi_ would be given a "submarine pa.s.s," guaranteeing her safety from attack by the U boats, and special lights to burn at nights. I replied that I failed to see the use of a "submarine pa.s.s," as U boats torpedoed at sight, and would not trouble to ask for a pa.s.s. He replied by asking me if I had ever heard of a neutral boat being torpedoed without warning. I answered that I had heard of such being done many times, and reminded him that the _Igotz Mendi_ was painted the Allied grey colour and therefore would not be recognized as a neutral, but regarded by the U boats as an enemy s.h.i.+p.

The Captain became very angry--the only time he ever lost his temper with me--and ended the interview by saying that he was carrying out the orders of the _Wolf's_ Commander, and had no choice but to obey. This was undoubtedly true, and though Lieutenant Rose told us many lies concerning our destination, we always felt he was acting in accordance with instructions from his senior officer in so doing. We all recognized that we were lucky in that he, and not the Commander of the _Wolf_ or any other officer of the Imperial Navy, was in charge of us. He admitted, however, that it was particularly hard luck on my wife and myself being captured like this, just as we had retired from a long period of work and residence in the Far East. This news of the _Wolf's_ intentions angered us all, and we all felt that there was very little chance of ever seeing land again, unless an Allied cruiser came to our aid. We regarded this plan of the Germans as a deliberate one to sink us and the s.h.i.+p when they had got all they wanted out of her, and I told the Captain that my wife and I would prefer to be shot that day rather than face such a prospect of absolute misery, with every chance of death alone putting an end to it.

New Year's Day! With the dawn of 1918 we looked back on the last few months of its predecessor and what they had meant and brought to us all.

What would the New Year bring forth? Liberty, or continued captivity; life, or death at sea? On New Year's morning we wished each other good luck and a Happy New Year, but with the news of our captors' intentions given us on the preceding day our prospects were the reverse of rosy.

The two s.h.i.+ps had parted on the evening of the 30th, both going north, and we did not see the _Wolf_ again till the morning of January 4th. She was then seen to be overhauling a s.h.i.+p on the horizon. We followed at a short distance, and before long saw a s.h.i.+p in full sail. The _Wolf_ approached her, spoke to[3] her, and, to our intense astonishment, released her. It seemed too good to be true that the _Wolf_ would leave any s.h.i.+p she met quite unmolested, but so it was--for a short time. It was between ten and eleven when the _Wolf_ and her prize proceeded on their original course and the sailing s.h.i.+p crossed our course astern.

About 1.30 p.m., however, we changed our course and turned about. We were all mystified as to what was going to happen, until we saw a sail on the horizon. The _Wolf's_ purpose was evident then. She was going back to destroy the s.h.i.+p whose existence she had forgiven in the morning. Imagine the feelings of the crew of her prey; seeing the _Wolf_ bearing down on her in the morning, their suspense as to their fate and that of their s.h.i.+p, their joy at their release, and--here was the _Wolf_ again! What would their fate be now? The _Wolf_ did not leave them long in doubt. She came up to her prize about 5 p.m. She was a four-masted barque in full sail, in ballast from the Cape to South America, and made a beautiful picture as she lay bathed in floods of golden light from the setting sun. Before dark, however, preparations had begun to remove her officers and crew and provisions, and this was completed in a few hours.

We were invited by the Germans to stay up and see the end. They told us a searchlight would be thrown on the s.h.i.+p, that we might better see her go down. Stage effects, with a vengeance! But they were not carried out--it was a too dangerous proceeding, as the enemy regretfully realized. We waited up till past eleven and saw lights flitting about the doomed s.h.i.+p, as the Germans sailors were removing some things, making fast others, and placing the bombs to blow her up. But none waited up for the end, which we heard took place after midnight. The s.h.i.+p first canted over, her sails resting on the water, righted herself and then slowly disappeared. It was a beautiful moonlight night for the commission of so dark a deed. The Germans afterwards told us that when the _Wolf_ first spoke the barque she gave her name _Storobrore_ and said she was a Norwegian s.h.i.+p, and so was released. The Germans had afterwards discovered from the _Wolf's_ s.h.i.+pping register that she was the _Alec Fawn_ and British owned before the war, and therefore to be destroyed.

The Germans told us that on the barque they had seen some English newspapers, and in them was some news of the two men who had escaped from the _Wolf_ near Sunday Island. One of them had died while swimming ash.o.r.e; the other, after some weeks alone on the island, had been picked up by a j.a.panese cruiser. The news this man was able to give was the first that the outside world had known about the _Wolf_ for many months, and the Germans realized that their enemies would be looking out for them and trying to prevent their return to Germany. This man would also be able to give an exact description of the _Wolf_, the names of the s.h.i.+ps she had captured before his escape, and the probable fate of other vessels since missing. This, we felt, would bring at least a little comfort to our relatives, who might conclude we were on the raider and not hopelessly lost, as they must have feared.

We had hoped our captors might have put us all on the sailing s.h.i.+p and sent us off on her to South America, as the _Wolf_ would have been well away and out of danger before we could have got ash.o.r.e. But they did not entertain any such idea. Some of us requested that the lifeboats of the sailing s.h.i.+p might be sent over to our s.h.i.+p, as we had only two lifeboats, a couple of small dinghies, and an improvised raft made of barrels and planks lashed together and surrounded by iron uprights and ropes--not sufficient for sixty-five people; but the Germans would not send us these lifeboats, as they said they were leaky!

The question of baggage had to be again reconsidered. It was evident we should be able to save very little, perhaps not even a handbag, if the s.h.i.+p were sunk by the Germans and the prisoners put into the lifeboats.

However, we ourselves packed in a handbag our most precious treasures we had brought from Siam. But in case it was impossible to save even so little, we collected the most valuable of our letters and papers and had them sewn up in sailcloth by a German sailor to put in our pockets. The King of Siam had conferred a decoration on me before I left; this was carefully packed and sewn up. I was determined to save this, if nothing else, though it seemed hopeless to expect to save some much-treasured parting presents and addresses presented to me by my Siamese friends.

Earlier in my service the King of Siam had conferred another decoration on me, and I was carrying with me His Majesty's Royal Licence for this, signed by him, and also King George V.'s Royal Licence with his Sign-Manual, giving me permission to accept and wear the decoration.

Both of these doc.u.ments, together with others highly valued which I was also determined to save, were secured in water-tight cases, ready to be put in my pockets at the last moment.

On January 8th, when the two s.h.i.+ps stopped, the Captain went on to the _Wolf_ and brought back with him charts of the North Atlantic and North Sea. We wondered if this would be his farewell visit to and our farewell acquaintance with the _Wolf_, but we remained in company of the _Wolf_ for the next few days, and at 7 p.m. on the 10th she again came alongside in the open sea and coaled from us till 4 p.m. on the next day. Conditions were slightly better than on the previous occasion, and the Commander of the _Wolf_ was evidently of opinion that they would never again be more favourable, but they were still quite sufficiently unpleasant. More fenders were lost and the _Wolf_ was further damaged, and this time our s.h.i.+p also sustained some damage. Some of her plates had been badly dented and she was leaking about a ton and a half an hour. The great uproar caused by the winches going all night, the periodic emptying of ashes dragged in iron buckets over the iron decks, the s.h.i.+fting of coal from the bunkers immediately underneath our cabins, and the constant b.u.mping of the s.h.i.+ps made sleep quite out of the question once more, and we were very glad indeed when the _Wolf_ sheered off. On this occasion the way in which she came alongside and sheered off was a beautiful piece of seamans.h.i.+p. Not many landsmen, I imagine, have seen this done in absolutely mid-ocean, and not many have been on a s.h.i.+p so lashed alongside another. It was a wonderful experience--would that some friendly hydroplane had seen us from aloft! The two s.h.i.+ps lashed together would certainly have presented a strange scene, and could have meant only one thing--a raider and her prize.

On the 11th we again saw and spoke to our _Hitachi_ friends on the _Wolf_--the last opportunity we had of speaking to them. They all looked well, but thin. They told us they had been informed that we were going to Spain, and that the _Wolf_ with them on board was _not_ going to Germany. Some of them believed this, and were comparatively joyful in consequence. But it was only another case of German lies. On the next day we crossed the Equator, and then for some days we saw the _Wolf_ no more.

About this time I experienced a little trouble with one of the German sailors. Most of them were courteous and kindly disposed, but one, a boorish, loutish bully, who served us with drinks at table, was a painful exception to this. His name was Fuchs: we sometimes called him Luchs, by mistake, of course! But Fuchs did not think so--he strongly objected to the other name! He had only one eye, and a black shade where the other one should have been. To train his moustache to resemble that of the All-Highest, he wore some apparatus plastered over it, reaching nearly to his eyes and secured behind his ears, so that his appearance was the reverse of prepossessing! I complained to him once about not serving me properly. He waited outside the saloon and cursed me afterwards. "I a German soldier," he said, "not your steward!" I told him that if he had any reason to complain of what I had said or done he should report me to his Captain, and that if he had not done so by six that evening I should report him for insolence. Needless to say, he said nothing to the Captain, so I reported him. The Captain at once thanked me for doing so, called him up at once, and gave him a good wigging. I had no more trouble with him afterwards.

On January 14th I approached the Captain and asked him if the Germans on the _Wolf_, when they got to Germany, would have any means of finding out whether we on the _Igotz Mendi_ had safely arrived in Spain. He replied that they would. I then asked him whether, if we were all lost on the _Igotz Mendi_ on her return voyage to Spain, the German Government would inform the British Government of our fate. He replied that would certainly be done. I further asked him whether we might send letters to the _Wolf_ to have them posted in Germany in the event of our not arriving in Spain. Most of us had to settle up our affairs in some way, in case we might be lost at sea, and wished to write farewell letters to our home people. Some of us, it will be remembered, had already taken some steps in this direction before we were sent on to the _Wolf_, as we thought it possible the _Wolf_ might become engaged with a hostile cruiser. We ourselves had to write a farewell letter, among others, to our daughter, born in Siam, from whom we had been separated except for short periods of furlough spent in England, for twelve years.

It seemed very hard that after this long separation, and just when we were looking forward to a joyful and fairly speedy reunion, we should perhaps never see her again.

The Captain said we might write these letters, which would not be posted if the _Igotz Mendi_ with us on board got back safely to Spain. "But,"

he added, "we have changed our plans, and now intend that you should be landed in Norway. It will be safer for you all, and you will not have to risk meeting our submarines in the Atlantic again. When we arrive in Norwegian waters the German prize crew will be taken off the s.h.i.+p after the _Wolf_ has got home, the s.h.i.+p will be handed over to the Spaniards, and you will all be landed in Norway, from where you can easily make your way to England." Here was quite a new plan--how much truth there was in this declaration will be seen hereafter. From now onwards definite promises began to be made to us concerning the end of our captivity: "In a month you will be free," "The next full moon will be the last you will see at sea," etc., etc.

We were now proceeding north every day, keeping in mid-Atlantic--always well off the trade routes, though of course we crossed some on our way north. The _Wolf_, naturally, was not looking for trouble, and had no intention of putting up a fight if she could avoid it. She was not looking for British wars.h.i.+ps; what we were anxious to know was whether the British wars.h.i.+ps were looking for her! On the 19th the Captain again thought he saw distant smoke on the horizon, and we careered about to avoid it as before. But on this occasion we were running away from a cloud! The next day we left the tropics, and with favourable weather were making an average of about 180 knots daily. On several days about this time, we pa.s.sed through large ma.s.ses of seaweed drifting from the Sarga.s.so Sea. We did not meet the _Wolf_ on the 22nd as our Captain evidently expected to do, and we waited about for her several hours. But next day we did meet her, and we were then told that in eighteen days we should be ash.o.r.e. We wondered where! We were then about 30 N., and we parted from the _Wolf_ the same afternoon. It was always a great relief to us all when we parted from her, keeping our s.h.i.+p's company of prisoners intact. For the men amongst us feared we might all be put upon the _Wolf_ to be taken to Germany, leaving our wives on the _Igotz Mendi_. This, so we had been told, had been the intention of the _Wolf's_ Commander when the prisoners were first put on the Spanish boat. He had ordered that only women, and prisoners above sixty and under sixteen should be put on the _Igotz Mendi_, but the German doctor, a humane and kindly man, would have nothing to do with this plan and declared he would not be responsible for the health of the women if this were done. So that we owe it to him that wives were not separated from their husbands during this anxious time, as the Commander of the _Wolf_ had inhumanly suggested.

CHAPTER IX

EN ROUTE FOR RUHLEBEN--VIA ICELAND

A last effort was made to persuade the Captain to ask the _Wolf's_ Commander to release the Spanish s.h.i.+p here, take all the prize crew off, and send us back to Cape Town (which would have suited the plans of every one of us), for a suspicion began to grow in our minds that Germany, and nowhere else, was the destination intended for us. But our Captain would not listen to this suggestion, and said he was sure the Spanish Captain would not go back to Cape Town even if he promised to do so.

On the next day, January 24th, relief seemed nearer than it had done since our capture four months before. I was sitting on the starboard deck, when suddenly, about 3.30 p.m., I saw coming up out of the mist, close to our starboard bow, what looked like a cruiser with four funnels. The Spanish officer on the bridge had apparently not seen it, or did not want to! Neither, apparently, had the German sailor, if, indeed, he was even on the bridge at that moment. I rushed to inform the American sailing s.h.i.+p Captain of my discovery, and he confirmed my opinion that it was a four-funnelled wars.h.i.+p. The Germans were by this time fully alarmed, and the s.h.i.+p slowed down a little; the Captain, evidently also thinking that the vessel was a cruiser, went to his cabin to dispose of the s.h.i.+p's papers, the crew got into their best uniform to surrender, and it looked as if help were at hand at last. We got our precious packages together, put them in our pockets, and got everything ready to leave the s.h.i.+p. We were all out on deck, delighted beyond words (our elation can be imagined), and saw the s.h.i.+p--it must be remembered that it was a very misty day--resolve itself into two two-funnelled s.h.i.+ps, apparently transports, one seemingly in distress and very much camouflaged, and the other standing by. Soon, however, they proceeded on their course and crossed our bows fairly close. We were then all ordered to our cabins, and we saw the two s.h.i.+ps steam off to the westward, without having spoken us or given any evidence of having seen us at all.

It was a most bitter disappointment to us, comparable to that of s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors on a desert island watching a s.h.i.+p expected to deliver them pa.s.s out of sight. Our hopes, raised to such a high pitch, were indeed dashed--we felt very low after this. Would help never come?

Better we had not seen the s.h.i.+ps than to be deceived and disappointed in this way. But it was a great relief to the Germans. We never discovered what s.h.i.+ps they were, but the American said he believed them to be American transports and that each mounted a gun. If only we had seen them the day before, when we were in company with the _Wolf_, they might have been suspicious, and probably have been of some help to us. The Captain was very worried by their appearance, and did not feel that all danger was pa.s.sed even when the s.h.i.+ps disappeared. He feared they might communicate with some armed vessel met with, and give them a description and the position of his s.h.i.+p. Also, had these two s.h.i.+ps seen the _Wolf_, from which we had parted only twenty-four hours before?

In the middle of the excitement the Spanish chief mate had rushed on to the bridge into the wireless room, and while the wireless operator was out of the room, or his attention had been diverted, he took from their place all the six or eight bombs on board and threw them overboard. They fell into the sea with a great splash just near where I was standing, but I did not then know it was the bombs which were being got rid of. It was a plucky act, for had he been discovered by the armed sentry while doing it he would have undoubtedly been shot on the spot. On the next day, on the morning of which we saw two sailing s.h.i.+ps far distant, an inquiry was held as to the disappearance of the bombs, which would, of course, have been used to sink the s.h.i.+p, and the chief mate owned up. He said that he did it for the sake of the women and children on board; as the sea was rough, their lives would have been in danger if they had been put in the lifeboats when the s.h.i.+p was bombed. He was confined to his cabin for the rest of the voyage, but we managed to see and talk to him from time to time, and thanked him for his bravery. Later he was sentenced by the Commander of the _Wolf_ to three years' imprisonment in Germany and a fine of 2,000 marks. From this time all the Spanish officers were relieved of their duties.

The Germans had told us that, in the event of the prize being captured while the weather was rough, the s.h.i.+p would not be bombed or sunk, as they had no desire to endanger the lives of the women or children amongst us. In fact, so they said, the s.h.i.+p would not be bombed under any conditions when once the _Wolf_ had got all the coal she wanted. It was indeed difficult to see what purpose would be served by the Germans sinking the Spanish s.h.i.+p, if she were overhauled by an Allied cruiser.

The Allies could not keep her, as she would have to be restored to Spain; the Germans said they would not keep her, but return her to her owners. To have deliberately sunk her would only have meant a gratuitous offence to Spain. Nevertheless, the next time we met the _Wolf_ a new supply of bombs and hand grenades was put on board our s.h.i.+p. At the same time an extra Lieutenant came on board, additional neutrals were sent over to help work the s.h.i.+p, and the prize crew was increased from nine to nineteen. All the prize crew now wore caps with the words "S.M.S.

_Otter_" inscribed thereon. Somewhere about this time the American Captain and the second mate of one of the captured s.h.i.+ps had returned to them their instruments which had been taken from them at the time of their capture.

The Kaiser's birthday, which fell on a Sunday, was honoured by the sacrifice of the last calf, and was marked by a most terrific storm. The wind was raging for hours at a hurricane force between eleven and twelve, the seas were between thirty and forty feet high, and it seemed impossible that the s.h.i.+p could live in such a sea. It seemed that she must inevitably founder. But notwithstanding terrible rolling, she s.h.i.+pped very little water, but all of the prisoners were alarmed at the rough weather and the rolling of the s.h.i.+p. The wireless aerials were brought down by the storm, and any seas that did come on board smashed whatever deck hamper had been left about.

From this day onwards we lived in a condition of great misery, and death stared us in the face many times. The prospect was a gloomy one: just when my wife and I had reached the time to which we had been looking forward for many years it seemed daily increasingly unlikely that our lives could escape a violent and brutal ending. Such thoughts inevitably occurred to our minds during these dark and anxious days. But there was still to come even worse than we had yet experienced. It got colder and colder every day for a considerable time; the food got worse and worse, and we were on short rations; the s.h.i.+p became more and more dirty, smokes ran short--only some ancient dusty s.h.a.g brought from Germany by the _Wolf_ and some virulent native tobacco from New Guinea remained--and conditions generally became almost beyond endurance.

Darkness fell very early in these far northern lat.i.tudes, and the long nights were very dreary and miserable. What wretched nights we spent in that crowded saloon--crushed round the table attempting to read or play cards! It was too dismal and uncomfortable for words, but we had either to endure that or our cold, wet cabins. Sundays seemed to be the days on which the worst storms occurred, though on very few of the days from this time onwards did we have anything but very dirty weather. The Australian stewardess became very ill with asthma, and with no adequate medicine supply on board, no suitable food, and no warm or dry cabin for her, it is indeed a miracle that she lived through these last few weeks.

She owes her life to the devotion of the Australian Major of the A.M.C.

on board and the lady prisoners who a.s.sisted in nursing her.

On February 5th we again met the _Wolf_--we had sighted her on the evening of the 4th, but it was too rough then to communicate, and, it was said, the _Wolf_ did not recognize our rocket signals. With the _Wolf's_ usual luck, the weather moderated next day, and the s.h.i.+ps stopped. Just as the Germans on land always seemed to get the weather they wanted, so they were equally favoured at sea. This was noticed over and over again, and the _Hitachi_ pa.s.sengers had very good reason to be sick about this. The two days previous to her capture the sea had been so rough that the "bird" could not go up, but on the actual day of the capture the sea had very much calmed down, enabling the seaplane to go up and spot the _Hitachi's_ position.

Those who had written letters to be sent on the _Wolf_ sent them over on this day, and the Spanish chief mate expected to be sent on the _Wolf_, as we might not meet her again. Luckily for him, however, for some reason or other he was not transferred that day, and neither he nor we ever saw the _Wolf_ again after the morning of February 6th. Doubtless the _Wolf_ expected to meet us again before the final separation occurred, when the transference of the officer would have been effected.

We heard from the _Wolf_ that she was getting very short of food, and that there was much sickness, including many cases of scurvy, on board.

The pigeons must have gone the way of all flesh by this time, and perhaps the dachshunds had too--in the form of German sausages! Some of the prisoners, we knew, had very little clothing, and positively none for cold weather, and our hearts were sore at the thought of so many of our fellow-countrymen, many of whom we had known, in good and ill fortune, being taken into captivity in Germany.

The next day we entered the Arctic Circle. The cold was intense, the cabins were icy, the temperature falling as low as 14 F. in some of them. There was no heating apparatus on the s.h.i.+p, with the exception of a couple of small heating pipes in the saloon. These were usually covered with the officers' thick clothes, and some of the pa.s.sengers'

garments drying. The cabin curtains froze to the ports; all the cabin roofs leaked, and it was impossible to keep the floors and bedding dry; and in our cabin, in addition, we had water constantly flowing and swis.h.i.+ng backwards and forwards between the iron deck of the s.h.i.+p and the wooden floor of the cabin. This oozed up through the floor and acc.u.mulated under the settee, and on many nights we emptied five or six buckets full of icy water from under the settee, which had also to be used as a bed. At last I persuaded the Captain to allow one of the sailors to drill a hole in the side of the cabin so that the water could have an outlet on to the deck. I had asked that this might be done directly the water appeared in our cabin, but was told it was _against the regulations of the Board of Trade_! Quoting the Board of Trade under such conditions--was this a sample of German humour? We managed to secure a piece of matting for our cabin floor--it was soaked through every day, but we had it dried daily in the engine-room. Since the great storm on the Kaiser's birthday our feet had never been dry or warm, and were in this condition till some hours after we got ash.o.r.e.

The ports of the cabins had all long ago been painted black in order that no light might show through, and the darkness at night, especially in these stormy seas, was always very sinister and ugly, not to say dangerous--not a spark of light showing on deck. We had to sit in these cold and dark cabins during the day. The weather prevented us from being on deck, which was often covered with frost and snow, and often there was nowhere else to sit. The electric light was on for only a limited time each day, so, as the ports could not be opened, it being far too cold, we asked and obtained permission to scratch a little of the paint off the ports in our cabin. This made things a little more bearable, but it can easily be imagined how people who had been living in tropical climates for many years fared under such conditions. As for our own case, my wife had spent only two winters out of Siam during the last twenty years, while I had spent none during the last twenty-one, and it is no exaggeration to say that we suffered agonies with the cold. It was nothing short of cruel to expose women and children to this after they had been dragged in captivity over the seas for many months. The Captain had ordered a part of the bunkers to be cleared, so that the prisoners might sit there in the cold weather. But the place was so dirty and uncomfortable, and difficult of access, in addition to it being in darkness, and quite unprovided with seats, that most of the prisoners preferred the crowded little saloon. Luchs was provided with a sw.a.n.ky kennel for the cold weather. The Spanish carpenter contrived it, and it looked like a small model of a Norwegian church--painted the Allied grey! Even the Captain's dog was more comfortable than we were!

On the morning of February 7th we for the first time encountered icefloes, when attempting the northern pa.s.sage between Greenland and Iceland. About 11 a.m. we stopped and hooted for the _Wolf_, as a fog had come on--the first time we had heard a steamer's siren since the day of our capture. We waited for some hours in the ice, but no answering signal came, so the Captain decided to turn back, as he thought it impossible to force his way through the ice. We therefore went back again on our course, the Captain hoping that the wind would change and cease blowing the icefloes from off the sh.o.r.es of Greenland.