soup we got just as sick of, till, long before the end, all the food served nauseated us. Tea, sometimes made in a coffeepot, sometimes even with salt water, was the usual hot drink provided, but coffee was for some time available once a day. We owe a great debt to one of our fellow-prisoners, a ship's oook from one of the other captured ships, who in return for his offer to work as baker was promised his liberty, which fortunately he has now secured, though no thanks to the Germans. He baked, under the most difficult conditions, extraordinarily good bread, and over and over again we should have gone without food but for this.

Mention has been made of the ship's rolling. Her capacity for this was incredible-in the smoothest sea, whether stopped or under steam, she rolled heavily from side to side, and caused great discomfort and inconvenience to all on board. The remark, "The Mendi roll, fresh every day for every meal, for breakfast, dinner, and tea," was made by some one at almost every meal-time, as we clutched at our food, gliding or jumping from end to end of the saloon table, accompanied by the smashing of crockery and upsetting of liquids and soup. Even the captain was astonished at the rolling of the ship, as he might well be, when one night he, in common with most of us, was flung out of his berth. No ship ever rolled like it!

As may be imagined, there was not much to do on board.

The few books we had between us were passed round and read over and over again. Some were also sent over from the Wolf for us. Card games of various kinds also helped to pass the time, which nevertheless dragged very heavily.

We next picked up the Wolf on the afternoon of Dec. 19, and the two ships proceeded on parallel courses for Trinidad, but about 8 P.M. both turned sharply round and doubled on their tracks, proceeding on a south-easterly course at full speed. We learned the reason for this the next day. We had been proceeding towards Trinidad, where German raiders had previously coaled and hidden; but Brazil was now in the war, so that hole was stopped, and the Wolf had intercepted a wireless from the commander of a Brazilian cruiser to the garrison on Trinidad. Hence her rapid flight! But for that wireless message the Wolf would have walked right into the trap, and we should have been free within twelve hours from the time the message was picked up.

Once again, wireless had been our undoing. The Hitachi had wirelessed the hour of her arrival at, and departure from, Singapore and Colombo; the Wolf of course had picked up the messages and was ready waiting for her. One other ship, if not more, was caught in just the same way. The Matunga had wirelessed, not even in code, her departure, with the nature of her cargo, from Sydney to New Guinea,

and she wirelessed again when within a few hours of her destination. The Wolf waited for her, informed her that she had on board just the cargo the Wolf needed, captured, and afterwards sunk her. The Wolf's success in capturing ships and evading hostile cruisers was certainly due to her intercepting apparently indiscriminate wirelessing between ships and between ships and shore-at one time in the Indian Ocean the Wolf was picking up news in four languages and to her seaplane, which enabled her to scout thoroughly and to spot an an enemy ship long before she could have been seen.

The two ships proceeded on their new course at full speed for the next two days. On the 21st they slowed down, hoping to coal in the open sea. The next day both ships stopped, but the condition of the sea would not admit of coaling; we were then said to be about 700 miles E. of Monte Video. It was of course a disappointment to the Germans that they were prevented from coaling and spending their Christmas under the shelter of Trinidad; but it became quite clear that all the holes for German raiders in this part of the ocean had now been stopped, and that they would have to coal in the open sea or not at all. But the disappointment was mitigated by other wireless news received. The Commander of the Wolf called all his men together, and harangued them to the effect that the latest

news was that Russia and Roumania were now out of the war, having given in to Germany, that the war would certainly be over in six months, and that the Wolf would then go home in safety to a victorious, grateful, and appreciative Fatherland. Some such spur as this was necessary to the men, who were getting very discontented with the length of the cruise and conditions prevailing, notably the monotony of the food and threatened shortage of food and drink and tobacco. Christmas Eve was still too rough for the ships to tie up alongside, and our Christmas the next day was the reverse of merry. One cow and three pigs had been killed for the Christmas feast, but they did not go far between nearly 800 people, and all the prisoners, at least, were glad when the dismal farce of Christmas under such conditions was over.

de

The weather on Boxing Day was only a little more favourable than that on Christmas Day, but the Germans oided to wait no longer to coal the Wolf. They had previously conveyed water to our ship from the Wolf in boats. The same method of transferring coal was disoussed, but that idea was abandoned. At 5 P.M. she tied up alongside us. She bumped into us with considerable force when she came up, and not many of us on board the Igotz Mendi will ever forget that night. Both ships were rolling heavily and repeatedly bumping into each

other, each ship quivering from end to end, to end, and the funnel of the Igotz Mendi was visibly shaking at every fresh collision. Sleep was impossible for any one on our boat; in fact many feared to turn in at all, as they thought some of the plates might be stove in. The next day was no better, but rather worse. About 6 P.M. there was a great crash, which alarmed all; it was due to the Wolf orashing into and completely smashing part of the bridge of our ship. This was enough for the Germans. They decided to suspend operations, and at 7 P.M. the Wolf sheered off, having coaled 600 tons in twenty-five hours. The coaling process had severely damaged the Wolf, many of whose plates were badly dented. We had lost eighteen large fenders between the ships, and the Wolf was

leaking to the extent of twelve tons an hour. The Igotz Mendi had come off better. None of her plates were dented, she was making no water, and the only visible signs of damage to her were many twisted and bent stanchions on the port side that met the Wolf.

We had been allowed to send letters for Christmascensored, of course, by the Germans to our Hitachi friends on the Wolf; and when the two ships were alongside we were allowed to speak to them, though conversation under such conditions was very difficult, one minute our friends would be several feet above us and the next below us, with the rolling of the ship; and the noise of the coaling, shouting of orders, and roaring of the water between the ships was deafening.

We had been encouraged by the Germans to thinkthey had in fact definitely told us that the Igotz Mendi with us on board was to be sent to Spain when the Germans released her. On December 29, all of which and the previous day, together with many succeeding days, were spent in transferring our cargo coal to our bunkers, the Germans on our ship and on the Wolf ostentatiously bade each other good-bye, and letters from prisoners on the Wolf were brought to us to post in Spain when we landed.

The idea of the Wolf remaining out till the war was over in six months was abandoned, and we were told the Wolf would now go home to Germany. Why we were told this, the first time we had been informed of the Wolf's plans, we never knew, except that it might have been an excuse to keep dragging us over the seas, for the Wolf would never have allowed us to get ashore before she reached Germany. Then we really began to think we were going to be landed in Spain, and the news raised the spirits

of all of us. Those who had been learning Spanish before now did so with redoubled energy, and it seemed as if the end of our cruise, with our freedom, was really in sight, especially as the captain had told some of us on the 16th that in six weeks our captivity would be over. Some of us, however, still inclined to the belief that the Germans would release the ship and order her back to Java or Colombo or Calcutta, while others believed we should ultimately be landed in Dutch Guiana or Mexico.

On the last day of the year a rumour went round the ship that we should be taken far north to a point from which the Wolf could get to Germany before we could reach Spain. That, in the opinion .of most of us, put an end to the prospects of landing in Spain. The Germans were not likely to run any risk of our giving information, and after the ships had separated there was still a chance of the prize being intercepted by an Allied eruiser before the Wolf got home, and if that had happened the Wolf's goose would have been cooked indeed. So Spain looked very improbable. I approached the captain on the last day of the year and spoke to him on the point. He confirmed the rumour. I made a vigorous, though I knew it would be quite a a useless, protest against this scheme. I pointed out that the ship, which by then would be almost empty, was not a suitable one in

which to carry women and children into the North Atlantic in mid-winter gales, and that people who had spent many years in the tropics would not be able to stand such weather, unprovided as they were with winter clothing; also that in case of distress we could call for no help, as our wireless would only receive and not send messages. The captain brushed these complaints aside, saying the ship was in good trim and could stand any weather, that it would only be intensely cold on a very few days, that arrangements would be made that we should suffer as little from the cold as possible, and that there was no great likelihood of our being in distress.

I then pointed out to him that our own Government prohibited our women from travelling through the submarine zone at all, but that he proposed to send them through it twice, and to give us a double dose of the North Atlantic at the very worst time of the year. He replied that going north we should go nowhere near the submarine zone-he was just as anxious to avoid submarines as we were-and when we parted, far up in the North Atlantic, the Igotz Mendi would be given a "submarine pass" guaranteeing her safety from attack by the U-boats, and special lights to burn at night. I replied that I failed to see the use of a "submarine pass," as U-boats torpedoed at sight, and would not trouble to ask for a pass.

He replied by asking me if I had ever heard of a neutral boat being torpedoed without warning. I answered that I had heard of such being done many times, and reminded him that the Igotz Mendi was painted the Allied grey colour, and therefore would not be recognised as a neutral, but regarded by the U-boats as an enemy ship. He ended the interview by saying that he was carrying out the orders of the Wolf's commander, and had no choice but to obey. This news of the Wolf's intentions angered us all, and we all felt that there was very little chance of ever seeing land again, unless an Allied oruiser came to our aid. We regarded this plan of the Germans as a deliberate one to sink us and the ship when they had got all they wanted out of her.

The two ships had parted on the evening of the 30th, both going north, and we did not see the Wolf again till the morning of January 4. She was then seen to be overhauling a ship on the horizon. We followed at a short distance, and before long saw a ship in full sail. The Wolf approached her, spoke her, and to our intense astonishment released her. It seemed too good to be true that the Wolf would leave any ship she met quite unmolested, but so it was-for a short time. It was between ten and eleven when the Wolf and her prize proceeded on their original course, and the sailing ship crossed our course astern. About 1.30 P.M., however, we changed our course and turned

about. We were all mystified as to what was going to happen, until we saw a sail on the horizon. The Wolf's pur. pose was evident then. She was going back to destroy the ship whose existence she had forgiven in the morning. Imagine the feelings of the crew of her prey, seeing the Wolf bearing down on her in the morning, their suspense as to their fate and that of their ship, their joy at their release, and-here was the Wolf again. What would their fate be now? The Wolf did not leave them long in doubt. She came up to her prize about 5 P.M. She was a four-masted barque in full sail, and made a beautiful picture as she lay bathed in floods of golden light from the setting sun. Before dark, however, preparations had begun to remove her officers and crew and provisions, she was in ballast from the Cape to S. America, and this was completed in a few hours. We were invited by the Germans to stay up and see the end. We waited up till past eleven and saw lights flitting about the doomed ship, as the German sailors were removing some things, making fast others, and placing the bombs to blow her up. But none waited up for the end, which we heard took place after midnight. ship first canted over, her sails resting on the water, righted herself, and then slowly disappeared. It was a beautiful moonlight night for the commission of so dark a deed. The Germans afterwards told us that when the Wolf first spoke

The