Five Months on a German Raider

Five Months on a German
Raider

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Frederic George Trayes
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Title: Five Months on a German Raider Being the Adventures of an
Englishman Captured by the 'Wolf'
Author: Frederic George Trayes

Release Date: September 14, 2005 [eBook #16690]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE
MONTHS ON A GERMAN RAIDER***
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FIVE MONTHS ON A GERMAN RAIDER
Being the Adventures of an Englishman Captured by the "Wolf"
by
F. G. TRAYES
Formerly Principal of the Royal Normal College Bangkok, Siam
London Headley Bros. Publishers, Ltd. 72 Oxford Street W. 1
1919.

[Illustration: THE AUTHOR BEFORE CAPTIVITY AND WHEN
RELEASED.]

DEDICATED
IN DEEP GRATITUDE TO THE DANISH NAVAL AUTHORITIES,
LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS, LIFEBOATMEN AND THEIR
FAMILIES, AND THE KINDLY INHABITANTS OF SKAGEN,

DENMARK, WHO SECURED FOR US, AND WELCOMED US
BACK TO FREEDOM, AND WHO BY THEIR OVERWHELMING
KINDNESS AND HEARTY HELP AND HOSPITALITY LEFT
WITH US SUCH KIND AND HAPPY MEMORIES OF THEIR
COUNTRY AND COUNTRYMEN AS WILL NEVER BE
FORGOTTEN.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE CAPTURE OF THE "HITACHI MARU" 11
II. PRISONERS ON THE "WOLF" 23
III. BACK TO THE "HITACHI MARU" 37
IV. THE GERMANS SINK THEIR PRIZE 51
V. LIFE ON THE "WOLF" 66
VI. ANOTHER PRIZE--OUR FUTURE HOME 82
VII. CHRISTMAS ON THE "IGOTZ MENDI" 97
VIII. RUMOURS AND PLANS 116
IX. EN ROUTE FOR RUHLEBEN--VIA ICELAND 133
X. SAVED BY SHIPWRECK 149
XI. FREE AT LAST 166
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE AUTHOR BEFORE AND AFTER HIS FIVE MONTHS'
CAPTIVITY (Frontispiece) FACING PAGE

"HITACHI" PASSENGERS AND CREW IN LIFEBOATS AFTER
THEIR SHIP HAD BEEN SHELLED 22
JAPANESE STEAMSHIP "HITACHI MARU" 64
THE "IGOTZ MENDI" ASHORE AT SKAGEN 150
THE SKAGEN LIFEBOAT GOING OUT TO THE "IGOTZ MENDI"
TO BRING OFF THE PRISONERS 166
THE SKAGEN LIFEBOAT BRINGING TO SHORE THE
PRISONERS FROM THE "IGOTZ MENDI" 166
AT SKAGEN: GERMAN PRIZE CREW OF THE "IGOTZ MENDI"
UNDER GUARD, AWAITING INTERNMENT 180
THE COURSE OF THE "WOLF" End paper

FIVE MONTHS ON A GERMAN RAIDER
CHAPTER I
THE CAPTURE OF THE "HITACHI MARU"
The S.S. Hitachi Maru, 6,716 tons, of the Nippon Yushen Kaisha
(Japan Mail Steamship Co.), left Colombo on September 24, 1917, her
entire ship's company being Japanese. Once outside the breakwater, the
rough weather made itself felt; the ship rolled a good deal and the
storms of wind and heavy rain continued more or less all day. The next
day the weather had moderated, and on the succeeding day, Wednesday,
the 26th, fine and bright weather prevailed, but the storm had left
behind a long rolling swell.
My wife and I were bound for Cape Town, and had joined the ship at
Singapore on the 15th, having left Bangkok, the capital of Siam, a
week earlier. Passengers who had embarked at Colombo were
beginning to recover from their sea-sickness and had begun to indulge

in deck games, and there seemed every prospect of a pleasant and
undisturbed voyage to Delagoa Bay, where we were due on October
7th.
The chart at noon on the 26th marked 508 miles from Colombo, 2,912
to Delagoa Bay, and 190 to the Equator; only position, not the course,
being marked after the ship left Colombo. Most of the passengers had,
as usual, either dozed on deck or in their cabins after tiffin, my wife
and I being in deck chairs on the port side. When I woke up at 1.45 I
saw far off on the horizon, on the port bow, smoke from a steamer. I
was the only person awake on the deck at the time, and I believe no
other passenger had seen the smoke, which was so far away that it was
impossible to tell whether we were meeting or overtaking the ship.
Immediately thoughts of a raider sprang to my mind, though I did not
know one was out. But from what one could gather at Colombo, no
ship was due at that port on that track in about two days. The streets of
Colombo were certainly darkened at night, and the lighthouse was not
in use when