ANOTHER PRIZE--OUR FUTURE HOME
The two ships steamed along in company for the next three days, usually
stopping towards sunset for communications and sending orders. On
Sunday, the 11th, we were invited to a band performance on the well deck
forward. It was quite a good one. The first mate came along and jokingly
said to us, "What more can you want? We give you a free passage, free
food, and even free music." I replied, "We only want one more thing
free." "What is that?" he asked. "Freedom," I answered. "Ah!" he said,
smiling, "I am afraid you must wait for that a little time."
I had asked him earlier in the day if he would allow us the use of a
room and a piano for a short time in the afternoon, so that we could
keep up our custom of singing a few hymns on Sunday. Later on, he told
me we might, with the permission of the officers, have their wardroom
for half an hour. The officers and he had kindly agreed to this, a
concession we much appreciated, and the little wardroom was crowded
indeed on that occasion.
At daybreak on the 13th both ships arrived at the Nazareth Bank, and
before 9 a.m. were lashed together. On such occasions the _Wolf_ never
dropped anchor, for she might have to be up and away at the slightest
warning; the prize ship was always the one to drop anchor. On the
previous Tuesday the _Wolf_ had been lashed alongside the _Hitachi_;
here, on this Tuesday, was the _Wolf_ lashed alongside another captured
ship in the very same place! Again the daring and coolness of our
captors amazed us. Coaling the _Wolf_ from the _Igotz Mendi_ at once
began, and a wireless installation was immediately rigged up by the
Germans on the Spanish ship. Coaling proceeded all that day, and the
German officers and crews on both ships were very busy. The prisoners
aft were also very busy, catching fish over the side. No sooner had the
ships stopped than lines were dropped overboard and many fine fish were
caught. The prisoners aft wore very little clothing and often no
head-gear at all, though we were in the tropics, where we had always
thought a sun-helmet was a _sine qua non_. But the prisoners got on
quite well without one.
On the morning of the 14th, just six weeks after our capture, orders
were given to the married couples on the _Wolf_ to get their light
baggage ready at once for transference to the Spanish ship, as she and
the _Wolf_ might have to separate at any moment.
Our heavy baggage would be transferred if time allowed. We did not
understand at the time why the Germans were so considerate to us in the
matter of baggage, but later on, a great deal later on, light dawned on
us! It is doubtful, to say the least of it, if we should have been
allowed to keep our baggage if we should be taken to Germany, a
possibility that was always present in our minds. We know now that it
always was the intention of the Germans to take us to Germany, and that
being the case, it would be just as simple to relieve us of our luggage
when we got there as to deprive us of it while we were _en route_.
Evidently something was in the air; some wireless message had been
picked up, as the seaplane was being brought up from the 'tween decks
and assembled at great haste on the well deck. The _Wölfchen_ went up
about 4.20 and returned about 5.30, and in the interval our heavy
baggage had been brought up from the _Wolf's_ hold ready to be
transferred to the _Igotz Mendi_.
At dusk that evening the married people were transferred to the Spanish
ship. We felt very sad at leaving our _Hitachi_ and other friends on the
_Wolf_, and feared that whatever might happen to us, they would never be
free. For ourselves, too, the prospect was not a very pleasing one. The
whole ship was smothered in coal-dust, the saloon was almost pitch-dark,
as awnings had been hung over all the ports, the atmosphere was
stifling, the cabins we were to occupy were still littered with the
belongings of their former occupants, and the outlook was certainly very
dreary. To make things worse a thick drizzle came on, converting the
coal-dust on deck into an evil, black, muddy ooze.
The next morning we were still alongside the _Wolf_, and remained there
till the morning of the 17th, our heavy baggage being transhipped in the
interval. There had also been transferred the Colonel of the A.A.M.C.
already mentioned, and three other men--including the second mate of one
ship previously captured--who were in ill-health. One of the _Hitachi_
prisoners, a man over military age, who had come on board at Colombo
straight from hospital, and was going for a health voyage to South
Africa, had been told in the morning that he was to be transferred to
the Spanish ship. But later on, much to the regret of every one, it was
found that the Germans would not release him. A German officer came up
to him and said in my hearing, "Were you not told this morning that you
were to go on the _Igotz Mendi_?" "Yes," he replied. "Well," said the
officer, "you're not to." Comment on the brutal manner of this remark is
unnecessary.
The message the seaplane had brought back had evidently been a
reassuring one, and we heard a long time afterwards that the _Wolf_ had
picked up a wireless from a Japanese cruiser, presumably looking for the
_Hitachi_, only thirty miles away. Hence the alarm! Unfortunately for
us, if this report were true, the cruiser did not turn aside to look in
the most obvious place where a ship like the _Wolf_ would hide, so once
more the _Wolf_ was safe.
If only there had been a couple of cruisers disguised, like the _Wolf_,
as tramps, each one carrying a seaplane or two, in each ocean free from
submarine attentions, the _Wolf_ could have been seen and her career
brought to an end long before. The same end would probably have been
attained on this occasion if a wireless message had been sent from
Delagoa Bay to Colombo saying that the _Igotz Mendi_ had left the former
port for the latter with 5,000 tons of coal on board. The strong
wireless installation on the _Wolf_, which picked up every message
within a large radius, but of course never sent any, would have picked
up this message, and the _Wolf_ would probably have risen to the bait,
with the result that she could have been caught by an armed vessel sent
in search of her on that track. For it must have been known that a
raider was out in those waters, as the disappearance of the _Hitachi_
could only have been due to the presence of one.
Coaling proceeded without cessation till the morning of the 17th, when
the _Wolf_ moved off a short distance. Passengers on mail-boats familiar
with the process of coaling ship at Port Said, Colombo, or any other
port, can imagine the condition of these ships, after three or four
days' incessant coaling day and night. The appearance of the _Igotz
Mendi_ was meanwhile undergoing another change. When captured she was
painted white and had a buff funnel with her company's distinguishing
mark. She was now painted the Allied grey colour, and when her sides
and funnel had been transformed the two ships sailed away, and on the
evening of the 17th, after final orders and instructions had been given,
parted company. For some days after this, painting was the order of the
day on the Spanish ship, which was now grey on every part visible.
The Captain of the Spanish ship was now relieved of his duties--and also
of his cabin, which the German Captain had annexed, leaving the owner
thereof the chartroom to sleep in--and was naturally very chagrined at
the course events had taken, especially as he said he had been informed
by the Consul at Lourenço Marques that the course between there and
Colombo was quite clear, and had not even been informed of the
disappearance of the _Hitachi_, though she had been overdue at Delagoa
Bay about a month. Consequently he had been showing his navigation
lights at sea, and without them the _Wolf_ would probably not have seen
him, as it was about 1 a.m. when the _Wolf_ picked him up.
The remaining Spanish officers took their watch on the bridge, always
with a member of the prize crew in attendance; the Spanish engineers
remained in charge of the engine-room, again with a German always
present; and the Spanish crew remained on duty as before. There was a
prize crew of nine Germans on board; the Captain, Lieutenant Rose, who
had also been in charge of the _Hitachi_ after her capture, and the
First Officer, who had also filled that post on the _Hitachi_, being the
only officers. Lieutenant Rose spoke Spanish in addition to English and
French, and the Spanish Captain also spoke very good English. Some of
the Spanish officers also spoke English, but the knowledge of it was not
so general as it was on the _Wolf_, where every officer we met spoke our
language, and most of the prize crew spoke quite enough to get on with.
The Spanish Captain, a charming gentleman, and in appearance anything
but a seafaring man, was, however, frankly puzzled by some current
English slang. One of the passenger prisoners--the hero of the kerosene
porridge--was known among us as the "hot-air merchant." This was simple
enough, but when we said he also suffered from cold feet, the Spanish
Captain admitted defeat. Such a contradictory combination seemed
inconceivable. "If a man were full of hot air, how could he have cold
feet?" he said. Lieutenant Rose, however, was _au fait_ with the latest
English slang, and always used it correctly.
The _Igotz Mendi_, 4,600 tons, had been completed in 1916, and was a
ship admirably fitted for her purpose, which, however, was not that of
carrying passengers. Ordinarily she was a collier, or carried iron ore.
Her decks were of iron, scorchingly hot in the tropics and icy cold in
northern latitudes. There was no place sheltered from the sun in which
to sit on the small deck space, and the small awnings which were
spasmodically rigged up were quite insufficient for the purpose. There
were now twenty-one "passenger" prisoners on board, including the
Japanese stewardess, and five Asiatics. There were no cabins except
those provided for the officers, who generously gave them up to the
married couples on board, the officers taking quarters much more crowded
and much less desirable. The Germans installed a small electric fan,
taken from the _Hitachi_, in each cabin, and also one in the saloon. The
cabins were quite suitable for one occupant each, but very cramped for
two; the one occupied by my wife and myself being only seven and a half
feet square. Each contained one bunk and one settee, the latter being a
sleeping-place far from comfortable, as it was only five and a half
feet long by about twenty inches wide, the bunk being the same width,
but longer, and the floor space was very narrow and restricted. Our
light baggage had to be kept on the bunk all day, being deposited on the
washstand and floor every night. Our first duty every morning was to
replace the baggage on the bunk, so that we could have room to stand on
the floor! There were four cabins, two on each side of a narrow
alley-way about two feet wide, while one married couple occupied the
Chief Engineer's cabin further aft on the starboard side, quite a roomy
apartment. The port cabin opposite to it was occupied by an old
Mauritius-Indian woman and her little granddaughter (who was often very
naughty and got many "lickings" from her grandmother, whom she
frequently implored the Captain to throw overboard), the Japanese
stewardess, the Australian stewardess already mentioned, and a coloured
man going to South Africa with his Chinese wife. Rather crowded
quarters, not to mention somewhat unseemly conditions! The Asiatic
passengers had been "intermediate" passengers on the _Hitachi_, i.e.
between the second-class and deck passengers. The four men above
mentioned occupied a space under the poop--it could not be dignified
with the name of cabin. It was very small, only one occupant could
dress at a time, and immediately in front of it was a reeking pigsty
with three full-sized occupants. The passage to it from the saloon on
the upper deck was often a perilous one in rough weather and on dark
nights, for there was never any light showing on board at night during
the whole cruise. Occasionally a lifeline was rigged along the well deck
to the poop quarters, a by no means unnecessary precaution. The prize
crew had quarters on the starboard side under the poop; they were
exceedingly small, cramped, and in every way inconvenient and
uncomfortable. Our heavy baggage was also stored under the poop.
This, then, was to be our home, possibly for the next few months. We did
not know for how long, but we regarded the prospect with a certain
amount of equanimity, as the ship was unarmed, and we knew we should not
be fired on by a hostile cruiser, as might have been the case if we had
remained on the _Wolf_.
When we arrived on the Spanish boat we were served with meals at the
same time to which the Spanish officers had been accustomed, i.e.
breakfast at 9 and supper at 4, but these times were soon afterwards
changed to breakfast at 8.30, tiffin 12.30, and supper 5.30. We were
lucky to get fresh food for some days. But this soon came to an end,
though the stock of muscatels, a quince preserve--called membrillo--and
Spanish wine lasted very much longer. It would have lasted much longer
still but for the stupidity of the German sailor who "managed" the
canteen. He allowed stores to be eaten in plenty while there were any,
instead of arranging to spread their consumption over a much longer
period.
There was on board a certain amount of live stock; some chickens, which
seemed to thrive quite well on coal-dust, and a couple of cows, each of
which had a calf born on board; these all met the usual fate of such
things on appropriate occasions. There were also a few cats and kittens,
which later on were joined by a couple of mongrel dachshund pups born on
the _Wolf_. The Spanish carpenter had a sporting hen, which had some
lively scraps with the dogs, the latter always coming off second best.
For many days after we parted company with the _Wolf_ we ambled and
dawdled through the sea on a south-westerly course, sometimes going back
on our tracks for half a day, sometimes stopping altogether for an hour
or two, sometimes for half a day, sometimes for a whole day. The
monotony of this performance was deadly beyond words. On one of these
days the Captain offered to land us at Mauritius on the following
morning and give himself up with the crew and ship if we could raise
£100,000 for him. Unfortunately, we couldn't!
On the afternoon of the 23rd the Germans became very agitated at the
sight of smoke on the horizon. At first we all thought it was the
_Wolf_, but before long we could see two columns of smoke, evidently
coming from two steamers travelling together. The prisoners then became
very agitated also, as help might be at hand. But the Germans at once
changed the course, and manoeuvred at full speed in such a way that we
soon got out of sight of the smoke, when we resumed our original course
again, after having boxed the compass more than once, and the German
Captain came down from the bridge and told us there was no relief for us
yet. We all felt that if the _Hitachi_ had only avoided distant smoke as
the German Captain had done we need never have made the acquaintance of
the _Wolf_.
On the 24th we again met the _Wolf_ in the evening. Whenever the _Wolf_
had an appointment to meet her prize at a certain time and place, the
prize always hoisted recognition signals directly she saw the _Wolf_ on
the horizon. These were made of wicker, and varied in shape on different
occasions.
We were now well to the south of Africa, in the roaring forties, and we
saw many schools of whales, and albatrosses accompanied us for many
days. A Spanish officer shot one one day--we told him this would bring
us bad luck, as the souls of lost sea captains are said to inhabit these
majestic birds. And one day we saw a dead whale floating along not far
from the ship--it was smothered with a huge flock of seabirds, gorging
themselves on it. By December 1st we had begun to steer north-west, and
on the 3rd the Captain informed us we were the nearest we should ever be
to Cape Town, the port to which I had set out. On this morning the
Captain said to me, "Mr. Trayes, didn't you say you were going to Cape
Town?" "Yes," I replied. "Come out on deck with me," he answered. I went
with him. He took my arm, and said, "There it is," pointing in its
direction. We were then 150 miles off! We met the _Wolf_ again on the
5th, and travelled in her company during the remainder of that day and
the next two, stopping as usual for communication and the sending of
stores to us in the evenings just before sunset. Often when the ship
stopped Lieutenant Rose would go aboard the _Wolf_, another Lieutenant
boarding us and remaining in charge during his absence. The _Wolf_ on
this occasion told us she had sunk the American sailing vessel _John H.
Kirby_ from America to East London with a cargo of four hundred
motor-cars on board, when two days from her destination, the officers
and crew being taken on board the _Wolf_. Many people in South Africa
would have to dispense with their motor joy-rides at Christmas in
consequence.
The evening of December 7th was the last occasion we saw the _Wolf_ for
many days. The two ships now shaped a course for the Brazilian Island of
Trinidad, where it was understood the _Wolf_ would coal from her prize,
and with her spend the Christmas holidays.