BACK TO THE "HITACHI MARU"
The _Hitachi_ was now a German ship, the Prize Captain was in command,
and German sailors replaced the Japanese, who had all been transferred
to the _Wolf_. The German Captain spoke excellent English, and expressed
a wish to do all he could to make us as comfortable on board as we had
been before. He also told us to report at once to him if anything were
missing from our cabins. (He informed us later that he had lived some
years in Richmond--he evidently knew the neighbourhood quite well--and
that he had been a member of the Richmond Tennis Club!) There was of
course considerable confusion on board; the deck was in a state of dirt
and chaos, littered with books and chairs, and some parts of it were an
inch or two deep in water, and we found next morning that the bathrooms
and lavatories were not in working order, as the pipes supplying these
places had been shot away when the ship was shelled. This state of
affairs prevailed for the next few days, and the men passengers
themselves had to do what was necessary in these quarters and haul
sea-water aboard. The next morning the transference of coal, cargo, and
ship's stores from the _Hitachi_ to the _Wolf_ began, and went on
without cessation day and night for the next five days. One of the
German officers came over and took photos of the passengers in groups,
and others frequently took snapshots of various incidents and of each
other on different parts of the ship.
We know now that we were then anchored _in a British possession_, one of
the southernmost groups of the Maldive Islands! Some of the islands were
inhabited, and small sailing boats came out to the _Wolf_, presumably
with provisions of some kind. We were, of course, not allowed to speak
to any of the islanders, who came alongside the _Wolf_, and were not
allowed alongside the _Hitachi_. On one occasion even, the doctor of the
_Wolf_ went in the ship's motor launch to one of the islands to attend
the wife of one of the native chiefs! On the next day--the 28th--all the
_Hitachi_ passengers returned on board her, and at the same time some of
the Japanese stewards returned, but they showed no inclination to work
as formerly. Indeed, the German officers had no little difficulty in
dealing with them. They naturally felt very sore at the deaths of so
many of their countrymen at the hands of the Germans, and they did as
little work as possible. The stewards were said to be now paid by the
Germans, but as they were no longer under the command of their own
countrymen, they certainly did not put themselves out to please their
new masters.
With their usual thoroughness, the Germans one day examined all our
passports and took notes of our names, ages, professions, maiden names
of married ladies, addresses, and various other details. My passport
described me as "Principal of Training College for Teachers." So I was
forthwith dubbed "Professor" by the Germans, and from this time
henceforth my wife and I were called Frau Professor and Herr Professor,
and this certainly led the sailors to treat us with more respect than
they might otherwise have done. One young man, who had on his passport
his photo taken in military uniform, was, however, detained on the
_Wolf_ as a military prisoner. He was asked by a German officer if he
were going home to fight. He replied that he certainly was, and pluckily
added, "I wish I were fighting now."
On October 1st the married prisoners from the _Wolf_, together with
three Australian civilian prisoners over military age, a Colonel of the
Australian A.M.C., a Major of the same corps, and his wife, with an
Australian stewardess, some young boys, and a few old sea captains and
mates, were sent on board the _Hitachi_. They had all been taken off
earlier prizes captured and sunk by the _Wolf_. The Australians had been
captured on August 6th from the s.s.[2] _Matunga_ from Sydney to what
was formerly German New Guinea, from which latter place they had been
only a few hours distant. An American captain, with his wife and little
girl, had been captured on the barque _Beluga_, from San Francisco to
Newcastle, N.S.W., on July 9th. All the passengers transferred were
given cabins on board the _Hitachi_. We learnt from these passengers
that the _Wolf_ was primarily a mine-layer, and that she had laid mines
at Cape Town, Bombay, Colombo, and off the Australian and New Zealand
coasts. She had sown her last crop of mines, 110 in number, off the
approaches to Singapore before she proceeded to the Indian Ocean to lie
in wait for the _Hitachi_. Altogether she had sown five hundred mines.
During her stay in the Maldives the _Wolf_ sent up her seaplane--or, as
the Germans said, "the bird"--every morning about six, and she returned
about eight. To all appearances the coast was clear, and the _Wolf_
consequently anticipated no interference or unwelcome attention from any
of our cruisers. Two of them, the _Venus_ and the _Doris_, we had seen
at anchor in Colombo harbour during our stay there, but it was
apparently thought not worth while to send any escort with the
_Hitachi_, though the value of her cargo was said to run into millions
sterling; and evidently the convoy system had not yet been adopted in
Eastern waters. A Japanese cruiser was also in Colombo harbour when we
arrived there, preceded by mine-sweepers, on September 24th. The
_Hitachi_ Captain and senior officers visited her before she sailed away
on the 25th. The Germans on the _Wolf_ told us that they heard her
wireless call when later on she struck one of their mines off Singapore,
but the Japanese authorities have since denied that one of their
cruisers struck a mine there.
The _Wolf_ remained alongside us till the morning of October 3rd, when
she sailed away at daybreak, leaving us anchored in the centre of the
atoll. It was a great relief to us when she departed; she kept all the
breeze off our side of the ship, so that the heat in our cabin was
stifling, and it was in addition very dark; the noise of coaling and
shifting cargo was incessant, and the roaring of the water between the
two ships most disturbing. Before she sailed away the Prize Captain
handed to my wife most of her jewels which had been recovered from the
bottom of our lifeboat. As many of these were Siamese jewellery and
unobtainable now, we were very rejoiced to obtain possession of them
again, but many rings were missing and were never recovered.
The falls of the lifeboats were all renewed, and on October 5th we had
places assigned to us in the lifeboats, and rules and regulations were
drawn up for the "detained enemy subjects" on board the _Hitachi_. They
were as follows:--
RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ON BOARD THE GERMAN AUXILIARY SHIP
"HITACHI MARU" DETAINED ENEMY SUBJECTS (d.e.s.).
1. Everybody on board is under martial law, and any offence
is liable to be punished by same.
2. All orders given by the Commander, First Officer, or any
of the German crew on duty are to be strictly obeyed.
3. After the order "Schiff abblenden" every evening at
sunset no lights may be shown on deck or through portholes,
etc., that are visible from outside.
4. The order "Alle Mann in die Boote" will be made known by
continuous ringing of the ship's bell and sounding of
gongs. Everybody hurries to his boat with the lifebelt and
leaves the ship. Everybody is allowed to take one small bag
previously packed.
5. Nobody is allowed to go on the boat deck beyond the
smoke-room. All persons living in first-class cabins are to
stay amidships, and are not allowed to go aft without
special permission; all persons living aft are to stay aft.
6. The Japanese crew is kept only for the comfort of the
one-time passengers, and is to be treated considerately, as
they are also d.e.s.
7. The d.e.s. are not allowed to talk with the crew.
At sea, October 6, 1917.
Kommando S.M.H. _Hitachi Maru_,
C. ROSE,
_Lt. z. See & Kommandant_.
Lieutenant Rose very kindly told me that as I was leaving the East for
good and therefore somewhat differently situated from the other
passengers, he would allow me to take in the lifeboat, in addition to a
handbag, a cabin trunk packed with the articles from Siam I most wanted
to save.
It was evident from this that the Germans intended sinking the ship if
we came across a British or Allied war vessel. We were of course
unarmed, as the Germans had removed the _Hitachi_ gun to the _Wolf_, but
the German Captain anticipated no difficulty on this score, and assured
me that it was the intention of the Commander of the _Wolf_ that we
should be landed in a short time with all our baggage at a neutral port
with a stone pier. We took this to mean a port in either Sumatra or
Java, and we were buoyed up with this hope for quite a considerable
time. But, alas, like many more of the assurances given to us, it was
quite untrue.
There were now on board 131 souls, of whom twenty-nine were passengers.
On Saturday, October 6th, the seaplane returned in the afternoon and
remained about half an hour, when she again flew away. She brought a
message of evidently great importance, for whereas it had been the
intention of our Captain to sail away on the following afternoon, he
weighed anchor the next morning and left the atoll. He had considerable
trouble with the anchor before starting, and did not get away till
nearly eight o'clock, instead of at daybreak. Evidently something was
coming to visit the atoll; though it was certain nothing could be
looking for us, as our capture could not then have been known, and there
could have been no communication between the Maldives and Ceylon, or the
mainland. Before and for some days after we sailed, the ship was cleaned
and put in order, the cargo properly stowed, and the bunkers trimmed by
the German crew, aided by some neutrals who had been taken prisoner
from other ships. Some of the sailors among the prize crew were good
enough to give us some pieces of the _Wolf's_ shrapnel found on the
_Hitachi_, relics which were eagerly sought after by the passengers.
The passengers were now under armed guards, but were at perfect liberty
to do as they pleased, and the relations between them and the German
officers and crew were quite friendly. Deck games were indulged in as
before our capture, and the German Captain took part in them. Time,
nevertheless, hung very heavily on our hands, but many a pleasant hour
was spent in the saloon with music and singing. One of the Australian
prisoners was a very good singer and pianist, and provided very
enjoyable entertainment for us. The Captain, knowing that I had some
songs with me, one afternoon asked me to sing. I was not feeling like
singing, so I declined. "Shot at dawn!" he said. "Ready now," I replied.
"No!" said he. "I can't oblige you now. Either at dawn, for disobedience
to Captain's orders, or not at all." So it was made the latter! On
Sunday evenings, after the six o'clock "supper," a small party met in
the saloon to sing a few favourite hymns, each one choosing the ones he
or she liked best. This little gathering was looked forward to by those
who took part in it, as it formed a welcome break in the ordinary
monotonous life on board.
The only Japanese left on board were some stewards, cooks, and the
stewardess. A German chief mate and chief engineer replaced the
Japanese, and other posts previously held by the Japanese were filled by
Germans and neutrals. The times of meals were changed, and we no longer
enjoyed the good meals we had had before our capture, as most of the
good food had been transferred to the _Wolf_. _Chota-hazri_ was done
away with, except for the ladies; the meals became much simpler, menus
were no longer necessary, and the Japanese cooks took no more trouble
with the preparation of the food.
However, on the whole we were not so badly off, though on a few
occasions there was really not enough to eat, and some of the meat was
tainted, as the freezing apparatus had got out of order soon after the
ship was captured.
There was no longer any laundry on board, as the dhobi had been killed.
Amateur efforts by some Japanese stewards were not successful, so the
passengers had to do their own washing as best they could. They were
helped in this by some of the young boys sent on board. The walls of
the alley-ways were plastered with handkerchiefs, etc., drying in
Chinese fashion, the alley-ways became drying-rooms for other garments
hung on the rails, and ironing with electric irons was done on the
saloon tables. Some of the men passengers soon became expert ironers.
We steamed gently on a south-westerly course for about five days, and on
the succeeding day, October 12th, changed our course many times, going
north-east at 6.30 a.m., south-east at 12.30 p.m., north-east again at 4
p.m., and north at 6.30 p.m., evidently waiting for something and
killing time, as we were going dead slow all day. The next morning we
had stopped entirely; we sighted smoke at 10.20 a.m.--it was, of course,
the _Wolf_, met by appointment at that particular time and place. She
came abreast of us about 11.20 a.m., and we sailed on parallel courses
for the rest of the day. She was unaccompanied by a new prize, and we
were glad to think she had been unsuccessful in her hunt for further
prey. She remained in company with us all next day, Sunday, and about 5
p.m. moved closer up, and after an exchange of signals we both changed
courses and the _Wolf_ sheered off, and to our great relief we saw her
no more for several days. There was always the hope that when away from
us she would be seen and captured by an Allied cruiser, and always the
fear that, failing such happy consummation, when she came back to us we
might again be put on board her. The Germans seemed to have a perfect
mania for taking photographs--we were, of course, not allowed to take
any, and cameras were even taken away from us--and one day Lieutenant
Rose showed me photos of various incidents of the _Wolf's_ cruise,
including those of the sinkings of various ships. I asked him how he, a
sailor, felt when he saw good ships being sent to the bottom. Did he
feel no remorse, no regret? He admitted he did, but the Germans, he
said, had no choice in the matter. They had no port to which they could
take their prizes--this, of course, was the fault of the British! (I
saw, too, on this day a photo of the _Hitachi_ flying the German flag,
and one showing the damage sustained by her from the _Wolf's_ firing.
There were ugly holes in the stern quarters, but all above the
water-line.) The German officers would take with them to Germany
hundreds of pictures giving a complete photographic record of the
_Wolf's_ expedition.
We cruised about again after the _Wolf_ had left us for a couple of
days, and on the 17th were stationary all day. Several sharks were seen
around the ship, and the German sailors caught two or three fairly large
ones during the day and got them on board. One particularly ravenous
shark made off with the bait three times, and was dragged halfway up the
ship's side on each occasion. So greedy was he that he returned to the
charge for the fourth time, seized the bait, and was this time
successfully hauled on board. On the 18th the sea was rough, and we were
gently steaming to keep the ship's head to the seas, and on the
following day we again changed our course many times. Saturday morning,
October 20th, again saw the _Wolf_ in sight at 6.30. She was still
alone, and we proceeded on parallel courses, passing about midday a few
white reefs with breakers sweeping over them. Shortly after, we came in
sight of many other reefs, most of which were quite bare, but there were
a few trees and a little vegetation on the largest of them, and at 2
p.m. we anchored, and the _Wolf_ tied up alongside us at a snug and
sheltered spot. We were almost surrounded by large and small coral
reefs, against which we could see and hear the breakers dashing. It was
a beautiful anchorage, and the waters were evidently well known to the
Germans. Some of the seafaring men amongst us told us we were in the
Cargados Carajos Reef, south-east of the Seychelles, and that we were
anchored near the Nazareth Bank.