THE MYSTERY SHIP
We sailed on the following day for Wilhelmshaven, to complete our
fitting out, and once arrived there, preparations were pushed on apace.
Two or three specially picked, trustworthy dockyard hands, carried out
such technical work as my own men were not able to deal with. Apart from
this, no one was allowed to enter or leave the ship; even officers of
the highest rank were refused admission.
We were screened on the landside from curious eyes, as we lay alongside
the much higher and larger _Möwe_, which had returned shortly before
from her first glorious voyage.
All the material that came on board--and there was a good deal of
it--was taken over by my own men on the quay. Thus all was done that
possibly could be done to keep everything about the ship secret.
We could not, of course, prevent the 'aura of mystery' with which we
surrounded ourselves from arousing the curiosity of neighbouring ships,
especially of our former comrades of the Outpost Flotilla, who regarded
us with no small wonderment, and probably with no small envy. I had
therefore told my people that they were, here and there--of course
apparently with the greatest hesitation and under the usual seal of
secrecy--to spread the rumour that we were going to Libau. To confirm
this rumour the name _Libau_ was painted on our bows. As a matter of
fact, I did not yet know myself what our destination really was; but I
was already quite certain that in any case it was not Libau.
From now onwards the mystery grew from hour to hour. One of our hatches
was battened down, and for the present that hold was not to be entered
by any of the ship's company, even including myself. As in Hamburg, so
here, it was carefully guarded day and night.
But the most mysterious thing of all was in one of the cabins, where
underneath a sofa bunk there was a secret entrance which led, by a
series of invisible manholes and concealed ladders, to one of the lower
holds. This secret hold reached from side to side of the ship, and there
was room in it for about fifty men. One end of it was formed by an iron
bulkhead, the other by a wooden dummy bulkhead, which so closely
imitated the other, and was so painted, that any one would have taken it
for an iron water-tight bulkhead, in which there was no opening. The
initiated, however, could, from the inner side, remove a couple of
planks, and so make their way out. There was a similar arrangement in a
yet lower hold, which, for the present, was filled with a reserve supply
of coal, the existence of which was to be concealed during the voyage.
Our mystery ship thus contained no lack of delightful surprises.