The _Hitachi_ was now in a sad condition; her glory was indeed departed and her end very near. We had our last meal in her stripped saloon that day at noon, and at one o"clock moved over on to the _Wolf_, the German sailors, aided by some neutrals, carrying our light cabin luggage for us. The Commander of the _Wolf_ himself superintended our crossing from one ship to the other, and he had had a gangway specially made for us.
We felt more like prisoners than ever! The crew and their belongings, the j.a.panese stewards and theirs, moved over to the _Wolf_ in the afternoon, and at 5 p.m. on November 6th the _Wolf_ sheered off, leaving the _Hitachi_ deserted, but for the German Captain and officers, and the bombing party who were to send her to the bottom next day.
Both ships remained where they were for the night, abreast of and about four hundred yards distant from each other. At 9 a.m. on November 7th they moved off and manoeuvred. The Germans did not intend to sink the _Hitachi_ where she was, but in deep water. To do this they had to sail some distance from the Nazareth Bank. The _Hitachi_ hoisted the German Imperial Navy flag, and performed a kind of naval goose-step for the delectation of the _Wolf_. At 1 p.m. the flag was hauled down, both ships stopped, and the _Hitachi_ blew off steam for the last time.
There were still a few people on her, and the _Wolf"s_ motor launch made three trips between the two ships before the German Captain and bombing officer left the _Hitachi_. Three bombs had been placed for her destruction, one forward outside the ship on the starboard side, one amidships inside, and one aft on the port side outside the ship. At 1.33 p.m. the Captain arrived alongside the _Wolf_, at 1.34 the first bomb exploded with a dull subdued roar, sending up a high column of water; the explosion of the other bombs followed at intervals of a minute, so that by 1.36 the last bomb had exploded. All on the _Wolf_ now stood watching the _Hitachi"s_ last struggle with the waves, a struggle which, thanks to her murderers, could have but one end; and the German officers stood on the _Wolf"s_ deck taking photos at different stages of the tragedy. There the two ships now rested, the murderer and the victim, alone on the ocean, with no help for the one and no avenging justice for the other. The _Wolf_ was secure from all interference--nothing could avert the final tragedy. The many witnesses who would have helped the victim were powerless; we could but stand and watch with impotent fury and great sorrow and pity the inevitable fate to which the _Hitachi_ was doomed, and of which the captors and captives on the _Wolf_ were the only witnesses. But one man among us refused to look on--the j.a.panese Captain refused to be a spectator of the wilful destruction of his ship, which had so long been his home. Her sinking meant for him the utter destruction of his hopes and an absolute end to his career. The struggle was a long one--it was pathetic beyond words to watch it, and there was a choky feeling in many a throat on the _Wolf_--for some time it even seemed as if the _Hitachi_ were going to s.n.a.t.c.h one more victory from the sea; she seemed to be defying the efforts of the waves to devour her, as, gently rolling, she shook herself free from the gradually encroaching water; but she was slowly getting lower in the water, and just before two o"clock there were signs that she was settling fast. Her well deck forward was awash; we could see the waves breaking on it; exactly at two o"clock her bows went under, and soon her funnel was surrounded with swirling water; it disappeared, and with her propellers high in the air she dived slowly and slantingly down to her great grave, and at one minute past two the sea closed over her. Twenty-five minutes had elapsed since the explosion of the last bomb. The Germans said she and her cargo were worth a million sterling when she went down.
[Ill.u.s.tration: NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA S.S. _HITACHI MARU_.]
There was great turmoil on the sea for some time after the ship disappeared; the ammunition house on the p.o.o.p floated away, a fair amount of wreckage also came away, an oar shot up high into the air from one of the hatches, the sodium lights attached to one of the lifebuoys ignited and ran along the water, and then the _Wolf_, exactly like a murderer making sure that the struggles of his victim had finally ceased, moved away from the scene of her latest crime. Never shall we forget the tragedy of that last half-hour in the life of the _Hitachi Maru_.
Thus came to an end the second of the Nippon Yushen Kaisha fleet bearing the name of _Hitachi Maru_. The original ship of that name had been sunk by the Russians in the Russo-j.a.panese War. Our ill-fated vessel had taken her place. It will savour of tempting Providence if another ship ever bears her unfortunate name, and no sailor could be blamed for refusing to sail in her.
CHAPTER V
LIFE ON THE "WOLF"
Life on the _Wolf_ was very different from life on the _Hitachi_. To begin with, all the single men of military age from the _Hitachi_ were accommodated on the "tween decks, and slept in hammocks which they had to sling themselves. The elder men among them slept in bunks taken from the _Hitachi_, but the quarters of all in the "tween decks were very restricted; there was no privacy, no convenience, and only a screen divided the European and j.a.panese quarters. The condition of our fellow-countrymen from the _Hitachi_ was now the reverse of enviable, though it was a great deal better than that of the crews of the captured ships, who were "accommodated" under the p.o.o.p--where the Captains and officers captured had quarters to themselves--and exercised on the p.o.o.p and well deck, the port side of which was reserved for the j.a.panese. The Germans did not forbid us to enter the quarters where our fellow-pa.s.sengers were confined, but it was obvious that they did not like our doing so, after the lies they had told us concerning the wonderful alterations made in these quarters for their prisoners"
"comfort." One day I managed to sneak un.o.bserved into the prisoners"
quarters under the p.o.o.p in the "tween decks, where hundreds of men were confined, but I had the misfortune to run up against the Lieutenant in charge and was promptly ordered out before I could have a good look round. But I had seen enough! Both the men under the p.o.o.p and our fellow-pa.s.sengers had armed guards over them--those guarding the latter were good fellows and quite friendly and helpful to their charges.
There were now more than four hundred prisoners on board, mostly British, some of whom had been captured in the February previous, as the _Wolf_ had left Germany in November 1916, the _Hitachi_ being the tenth prize taken. The condition in which these prisoners lived cannot be too strongly condemned. The heat in the tropics was insufferable, the overcrowding abominable, and on the p.o.o.p there was hardly room to move.
While anch.o.r.ed near Sunday Island in the Pacific some months earlier, two of the British prisoners taken from the first prize captured managed to escape. Their absence was not noticed by the Germans till a fortnight later, as up to then there had been no daily roll-call, an omission which was at once rectified directly these two men were noted missing. As a punishment, the prisoners aft were no longer allowed to exercise on the p.o.o.p, but were kept below. The heat and stifling atmosphere were inconceivable and cruel. The iron deck below presented the appearance of having been hosed--in reality it was merely the perspiration streaming off these poor persecuted captives that drenched the deck. The attention of the ship"s doctor was one day called to this, and he at once forbade this inhuman confinement in future. From then onwards, batches of the prisoners were allowed on the p.o.o.p at a time, so that every man could obtain at least a little fresh air a day--surely the smallest concession that could possibly be made to men living under such wretched conditions.
But notwithstanding these hardships the men seemed to be merry and bright, and showed smiling faces to their captors. They had all evidently made up their minds to keep their end up to the last, and were not to be downed by any bad news or bad treatment the Germans might give them.
The _Wolf_, of course, picked up wireless news every day, printed it, and circulated it throughout the ship in German and English. We did not, however, hear all the news that was picked up, but felt that what we did hear kept us at least a little in touch with the outside world, and we have since been able to verify that, and also to discover that we missed a great deal too. The weekly returns of submarine sinkings were regularly published, and these were followed with great interest both by the Germans and ourselves. We heard, too, some of the speeches of Mr.
Lloyd George and the German Chancellors, debates in the Reichstag, and general war news, especially what was favourable to the Germans.
The accommodation provided for the married couples on the _Wolf_ was situated on the port side upper deck, which corresponded in position to the promenade deck of a liner. Some "cabins" had been improvised when the first women and civilian prisoners had been captured, some had been vacated by the officers, and others had been carved out as the number of these prisoners increased. The cabins were, of course, very small--there was very little room to spare on the _Wolf_--and, at the best, makeshift contrivances, but it must be admitted that our German captors did all they could to make us as comfortable as possible under the conditions prevailing. The cabin occupied by my wife and myself was built on one of the hatches. The bunks were at different levels, and were at right angles to each other, half of one being in a dark corner.
There was not much room in it even for light baggage, and not standing room for two people. The walls and ceiling were made of white painted canvas, and an electric light and fan were installed over the door. The married couples, the Australian military officers, and a few elderly civilians messed together in the officers" ward-room (presided over by a war photograph of the All Highest), quite a tiny saloon, which was placed at our disposal after the officers had finished their meals. We had breakfast at 9.15, dinner at 1.15, and supper at 7.15. The Commander of the _Wolf_ was a very lonely man--he messed alone in his quarters near the bridge, and we saw very little of him, as he very rarely left his quarters and came below among his men and the prisoners.
The food on the _Wolf_ was better cooked than it had been on the _Hitachi_, but there was of course no fresh food of any kind. Two or three horses had been taken from the S.S. _Matunga_--these had been shot and eaten long before. Even the potatoes we had were dried, and had to be soaked many hours before they were cooked, and even then they did not much resemble the original article; the same remark applies to the other vegetables we had. Occasionally our meals satisfied us as far as quant.i.ty went, but in the main we left the table feeling we could with ease dispose of a great deal more. This was especially the case after breakfast, which consisted of bread and jam only; and once at tiffin all we had to eat was boiled rice with cinnamon and sugar. Each cabin had a German orderly to look after and wait on its occupants, two German stewards waited on us at meals, and a j.a.panese steward had two or three cabins to look after and clean. The water allowance, both for drinking and washing, was very small. We had only one bottle of the former and one can of the latter between two of us; so it was impossible to wash any of our clothes.
The deck--we were only allowed the port side--was only about six feet wide, and part of this was occupied by spare spars. There were no awnings, and the sun and rain streamed right across the narrow s.p.a.ce.
Sailors and officers, and prisoners to fetch their food, were pa.s.sing along this deck incessantly all day, so it can be easily imagined there was not much room for sitting about on deck chairs. On this deck, too, was the prisoners" cell, usually called the "calaboose," very rarely without an occupant, with an armed sentry on guard outside. It was not a cheerful abode, being very small and dark; and the prisoner, if his sentence were a long one, served it in instalments of a few days at a time.
We were allowed to go down to the well deck to see our friends and sit on the hatch with them during the daytime. They had their meals in the "tween decks at different times from us, but the food provided was usually just the same. The evenings were the deadliest times of all on the _Wolf_. At dusk the order "Schiff Abblenden" resounded all through the ship, sailors came round to put tin plates over all the portholes, and from thence onward throughout the night complete darkness prevailed on deck, not a glint of light showing anywhere on the ship. It was very nasty and uncanny.
When the _Wolf_ considered herself in dangerous waters, and when laying mines, even smoking was forbidden on deck. All the cabins had a device by which directly the door was open the light went out, only to be relit directly the door closed. So it was impossible for any one to leave his cabin with the door open and the light on. There was nothing to do in the evenings after the last meal, which was over before eight o"clock.
We groped our way in darkness along the deck when we left the little wardroom, and there was then nowhere to sit except on the dark deck or in the dark cabins; it was so hot that the cabin doors had to be kept open, and the evenings spent on the _Wolf_ were certainly very dreary.
Most of us agreed with Dr. Johnson that "the man in gaol has more room, better food, and commonly better company than the man in the ship, and is in safety," and felt we would rather be in gaol on sh.o.r.e, for then we should be in no risk of being killed at any moment by our own people, our cells would have been larger than our cabins, and our food possibly not much worse, and our gaol would at least have been stationary and not rolling about, though it must be confessed the _Wolf_ was a good sea boat.
She had been one of the Hansa line before the war, called the _Wachfels_, was about 6,000 tons, single screw, with a speed of about ten knots at the outside. She had been thoroughly adapted for her work as a raider, had four torpedo tubes and six guns (said to be 4.7), with concrete emplacements, not to mention machine and smaller guns--to be used against the prisoners if they should attempt escape, etc.--none of which could be seen by a pa.s.sing ship, to which the _Wolf_ looked, as she was intended to look, exactly like an innocent neutral tramp painted black. This was in itself a camouflage--she needed no other. When in action her bulwarks dropped, giving free play to her guns and torpedoes.
There was telephonic communication between her bridge and every gun and every part of the ship; she carried a huge searchlight, her masts and funnel were telescopic, and she could rig an extra funnel. She carried large supplies of bombs, hand grenades, rifles and small arms; had hospitals with two doctors on board; the officers had the best and most powerful binoculars; among her crew of more than three hundred were representatives of every trade; she was thoroughly well equipped in every way, and absolutely nothing seemed to have been forgotten. There were, it was said, only three of the officers who were Imperial Navy men; the Commander, the Artillery Officer, and the Lieutenant in charge of the prisoners. All the other officers and a great many of the crew were from the German mercantile marine, who had travelled with, mixed with, and lived with Englishmen in many parts of the world. To this we undoubtedly owed the kindly treatment we received on board, treatment which was infinitely better than we expected to receive. The majority of the officers and men were certainly kindly disposed towards us. There is no doubt, however, that the fear we might be taken by a British cruiser also had something to do with this treatment, for if we had been treated badly the Germans knew they would have had cause to regret it had they been captured.
In a conversation with the Lieutenant in charge of the prisoners--who, by the way, had a Scottish mother--I remarked that it was very hard on our relations and friends not knowing what had become of us. He agreed that it was, but added it was no worse for my relations than it was for his! They did not know where he was either! "No," I replied, "but you are out doing your duty and serving your country, and when you left home your people knew they would have no news of you for many months. It is quite different with us. We are not out to be ingloriously taken prisoner, we were simply travelling on business, being compelled to do so. We are not serving our country by being caught and kept in this way, and our relatives did not expect us to disappear and send them no news of ourselves for a long time." However, he affected not to see the difference between our case and his; just as the sailors often told the prisoners aft that in case of the _Wolf_ going into action it would be no worse for the prisoners than it was for the fighting crew!
We were forbidden to talk to the crew, but under cover of the darkness some of them, a great number of whom spoke English, were only too glad to speak to us. We learnt from them that the _Wolf_ had been out a year; they were all very "fed up" with it all, tired of the life, tired of the sea, tired of the food, longing to get home, and longing for the war to end. They had, too, no doubts as to how it would end, and were certain that the _Wolf_ would get back to Germany whenever she wished to do so.
Of course we a.s.sured them that they were utterly mistaken, and that it would be absolutely impossible for the _Wolf_ ever to get through the British blockade or see Germany again.
They were certain three things would bring them victory: their submarines, the defection of Russia, who would soon be made to conclude peace with Germany, and the fact that in their opinion America had entered the war too late. The submarines, too, would not allow a single transport to reach European waters!
While on the _Wolf_ we heard of the great reverse to the Italian arms.
We were told that half a million prisoners and thousands of guns were taken, and that there was no longer an Italian army! Germany had strafed one more country and knocked her out of the war. This made their early victory still more certain! Their spirits may be imagined when this news of Italy"s disaster was received.
The interests of the _Wolf_ were now, to a certain extent, identical with our own--that we should not meet an Allied cruiser. A notice was posted in some of our cabins saying that in that event the women with their husbands, and some other prisoners, would be put into boats with a white flag, "if weather and other conditions permitted." We often wondered whether they _would_ permit! The other prisoners, however, viz. those under the p.o.o.p and on the "tween decks, would have had no chance of being saved. They would all have been battened down under hatches (this, indeed, was done whenever the _Wolf_ sighted or captured a ship, when mines were being sown, and when gun and other drill was carried on) and armed guards with hand grenades sent among them. It made us furious to see, as we did many times, our friends being driven below by armed guards. Their fate, if the _Wolf_ had gone into action, would have been too terrible to contemplate. For the lifeboats on the _Wolf_ could not possibly have accommodated more than 350 souls, and it is certain no prisoners would have been among this number.
The Captain and officers of the _Wolf_ must have had some very anxious moments on many occasions. When pa.s.sing close to other ships, as she had done in the comparatively narrow waters of the Java Sea, all the prisoners were sent below, and we were told that the few officers and crew visible to a pa.s.sing ship discarded their naval uniform and appeared in kit suitable for the officers and crew of a tramp. We also heard that on one occasion in narrow waters in the Far East the _Wolf_ pa.s.sed quite close to a j.a.panese cruiser at night. Both ships were in darkness, every man on the _Wolf_ was at his station, and at the slightest sign from the cruiser the _Wolf"s_ guns and torpedoes would have immediately come into action. But the _Wolf"s_ good luck did not desert her, and the j.a.panese cruiser pa.s.sed away into the night without having given any sign that she had seen the raider.
The _Wolf_, with a company of over seven hundred on board, sailed away on a south-westerly course for the next two days, and the usual routine of the ship went on, but no further gun or other drills took place. Soon after daybreak on November 10th a sailor came along and locked us all in our cabins, armed guards patrolled the deck, and a short time after an officer came to each cabin and informed us there was a steamer on the starboard side which the _Wolf_ intended to capture. He told us the _Wolf_ would fire on her to stop, and provided all of us with cotton-wool to insert in our ears while the guns were being fired! The Germans had had no scruples about firing on the _Hitachi_, though they could have seen there were women on board, but on this occasion they were so considerate as to give us cotton-wool for our ears, that our nerves might not be shaken--a truly German touch! We waited for the sound of the guns, but nothing happened, and in about half an hour the same officer came along and said to us, "Don"t be fearful; the other ship has stopped, and there will be no firing!" Our cabin doors were unlocked, the men on the upper deck were allowed out, the ladies were requested not to show themselves on deck, and another officer ran along the deck saying "We"ve catched her, we"ve catched her; a neutral this time!"
The "catched" vessel had stopped and was lying very near the _Wolf_. The name on her stern proclaimed her to be the _Igotz Mendi_, of Bilbao, and she was flying the Spanish flag. In a short time a prize crew, with Lieutenant Rose in command, left the _Wolf_ in her motor launch, and proceeded to the other ship. After they had been aboard her a few minutes, a message came back that the Spanish ship was from Delagoa Bay to Colombo with a cargo of 5,800 tons of coal for the British Admiralty authorities in Ceylon. So the Germans would not after all have to intern the _Wolf_ and her prize in a neutral country--if she could reach one--at any rate from lack of coal, as we fondly imagined might have been the case. Here was just the cargo our captors wanted to annex, but the chagrin of the Germans may be imagined when they realized that they had captured this ship just three days too late to save the _Hitachi_.
Here was a ship with ample coal which, had it been captured a few days before, would have enabled the Germans to save the _Hitachi_ and take her as a prize to Germany, with all of us on board as prisoners, as they had always desired to do. Other German raiders had occasionally been able to do so with one or two of their prizes. Had the _Hitachi_ arrived in Germany, she would have been rechristened the _Luchs_, the name of a former German war vessel with which the Prize Captain had had a.s.sociations.
The _Igotz Mendi_ had left Lourenco Marques on November 5th, and was due at Colombo on the 22nd. Before 9 a.m. on the morning of the capture both ships had turned about, the prize now being in command of the Germans, and were going back on the course the _Wolf_ had followed since the destruction of the _Hitachi_. Discussion was rife among the prisoners as to what would be done with the new capture, and whether the Commander of the _Wolf_ would redeem his promise to transfer the married couples to the "next ship caught."
CHAPTER VI
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 pa.s.sage, 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 a.s.sembled at great haste on the well deck. The _Wolfchen_ 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 rea.s.suring one, and we heard a long time afterwards that the _Wolf_ had picked up a wireless from a j.a.panese 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.