Before leaving New York I mailed several letters and many American
newspapers to the Danish capital, addressing them in care of Hoved
Post Kontor, Kopenhagen, Denmark. The letters had been given to me
by Mr. Fenwick for identification among some people he knew and they
later proved of much value to me in conducting my study of the work of
spies and its effect upon commerce and the trend of the war. My purpose
in mailing the letters and newspapers was to evade the possibility
of losing them in case of detention and seizure of the ship before
reaching the capital of Denmark, which was not entirely out of the
range of probability.
The ocean-liner _Frederick VIII_ was throbbing under the pressure of
superheated steam when I arrived at the docks in Hoboken, shortly
before two o'clock in the afternoon of September twenty-second.
Everything was ready for her to put to sea in the long route across the
northern part of the Atlantic.
At the table to which the chief steward assigned me were one Danish
officer of the steamship and seven passengers. The latter included
one English, one German, two Belgian and three American citizens. The
general conversation was in German, and this was pleasing to me, as it
gave me an opportunity to cultivate the use of the Teutonic tongue with
much effect.
Among the passengers was Mr. Niels Petersen, who had been in Canada
and had taken pictures at the principal seaports, such as St. John,
Halifax, Quebec and Montreal. His photographs included views of
harbors, bridges, railway terminals, stretches of highways and
prominent buildings. He had been tracked to New York, where he was
detected by British spies, and a telegram to Kirkwall by way of London
demanded his arrest on the charge that he was guilty of espionage.
This party declared his innocence and claimed to be a Dane. He admitted
having the photographs, but said they were taken for his personal study
and for no other purpose. On the seventh day at Kirkwall he was taken
from the ship as a spy and removed in a small boat. At the time of his
arrest he was singing a patriotic song of Denmark, verses of which he
continued singing as he was removed, and while taken away he waved his
hand in farewell to the steamship that had carried him into the hands
of his accusers. This was the last seen of him by the passengers; it is
said he was taken to a detention camp and later imprisoned.
At Christiana British trade spies were numerous at the railway
stations and in the vicinity of the docks. I saw them at restaurants
and in the lobbies of the leading hotels, especially at the Grand,
the Scandinavie, and the Continental. It was not difficult to
identify myself by using the _Sign of Silence_, which I had employed
successfully at Albany, when the two companions of Mr. Fenwick were
introduced to me. My knowledge of the purchase of horses, grain, cotton
and meat by the allies in America interested them.
These spies were studying the register at the leading hotels so they
might know the class of strangers who were in the city, whether German,
Russian, French, etc., and the effect which the propaganda of these or
any of them had upon public thought in Norway.