One captain was especially amusing. His was the unenviable duty of
taking a bucket-dredger from England to Australia. No seafaring man can
help sympathizing with the unfortunate who has to conduct one of these
rolling tubs, with a speed of not more than four nautical miles at
best, all the way from Europe down to Australia. And so, from a purely
humane standpoint, we could fully appreciate this English captain's
joy at being captured. Rarely have I seen anyone jump so high for joy.
He must have been a past master in the art of jumping to be able to
keep his feet in spite of the terrible rolling of his ship. Tears of
gratitude coursed down his weathered cheeks as he exclaimed, "Thank
God, that the old tub is gone! The five hundred pounds I was to have
for taking her to Australia were paid me in advance."
* * * * *
On the eighteenth of September, in the evening, the _Emden_ entered the
harbor. It so happened that this was the day after the one on which
the joyful tidings of the _Emden's_ destruction had been officially
announced. To celebrate the happy occasion, a large company had
assembled for dinner at the Club. As we were not aware of this, it was
hardly our fault that the _Emden's_ shells fell into the soup. Had we
known of the dinner party, we would, of course, gladly have deferred
our attack until another day, as it is the part of wisdom never to
exasperate the enemy unnecessarily. A due regard should always be shown
for sacred institutions, and _dinner_ is an institution with regard to
which the English are always keenly sensitive.
We approached to within 3,000 meters of Madras. The harbor light
was shining peacefully. It rendered us good service as we steered
toward shore, for which we again take this opportunity to express our
gratitude to the British Indian government. A searchlight revealed
to us the object of our quest,--the oil tanks, painted white and
ornamented with a stripe of red. A couple of shells sent in that
direction, a quick upleaping of tongues of bluish-yellow flame, streams
of liquid fire pouring out through the holes made by our shots, an
enormous black cloud of dense smoke,--and, following the advice of
the old adage, "A change is good for everybody," we had sent several
millions' worth of the enemy's property up into the air, instead of
down into the sea, as heretofore.
* * * * *
Meanwhile the coaling question had come to be a source of annoyance
to us. Our faithful _Markomannia_ had no more coal to give us. To be
sure, our prize, the _Pontoporros_, with her cargo of coal from India,
was still with us. But this Indian coal is far from being desirable
fuel, as it not only clogs the fire kettles with dirt, but, while it
gives out a minimum of heat, it sends forth a maximum of smoke, and
so our prize was not an unmixed joy to us. However, this vexed coal
question was happily solved for us by the English Admiralty in a most
satisfactory manner. Before many days had passed, a fine large steamer
of 7,000 tonnage, loaded with the best of Welsh coal, en route for Hong
Kong, and destined for their own use, was relinquished to us by the
English in a most unselfish manner.
So, for the present, we were most generously supplied with the best
of fuel, and all further anxiety on this account was dismissed to the
uncertain future. The captain of our new coal-laden prize seemed to
have no scruples with regard to transferring himself, together with his
ship, into German service. Willingly and faithfully he coöperated with
the officer of the prize crew that was, of course, placed in command of
his ship, all the while cheerfully whistling "Rule, Britannia."
In the meantime, even the English government itself had become
convinced that the destruction of the _Emden_ had, after all, not been
accomplished.
* * * * *