Five Months on a German Raider: Being the Adventures of an Englishman Captured by the 'Wolf'Trayes, Frederic George
History
Five Months on a German Raider: Being the Adventures of an Englishman Captured by the 'Wolf'
Trayes, Frederic George
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
The _Wolf_ remained alongside us till the morning of October 3rd, when
she sailed away at daybreak, leaving us anchored in the centre of the
atoll. It was a great relief to us when she departed; she kept all the
breeze off our side of the ship, so that the heat in our cabin was
stifling, and it was in addition very dark; the noise of coaling and
shifting cargo was incessant, and the roaring of the water between the
two ships most disturbing. Before she sailed away the Prize Captain
handed to my wife most of her jewels which had been recovered from the
bottom of our lifeboat. As many of these were Siamese jewellery and
unobtainable now, we were very rejoiced to obtain possession of them
again, but many rings were missing and were never recovered.
The falls of the lifeboats were all renewed, and on October 5th we had
places assigned to us in the lifeboats, and rules and regulations were
drawn up for the "detained enemy subjects" on board the _Hitachi_. They
were as follows:--
RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ON BOARD THE GERMAN AUXILIARY SHIP
"HITACHI MARU" DETAINED ENEMY SUBJECTS (d.e.s.).
1. Everybody on board is under martial law, and any offence
is liable to be punished by same.
2. All orders given by the Commander, First Officer, or any
of the German crew on duty are to be strictly obeyed.
3. After the order "Schiff abblenden" every evening at
sunset no lights may be shown on deck or through portholes,
etc., that are visible from outside.
4. The order "Alle Mann in die Boote" will be made known by
continuous ringing of the ship's bell and sounding of
gongs. Everybody hurries to his boat with the lifebelt and
leaves the ship. Everybody is allowed to take one small bag
previously packed.
5. Nobody is allowed to go on the boat deck beyond the
smoke-room. All persons living in first-class cabins are to
stay amidships, and are not allowed to go aft without
special permission; all persons living aft are to stay aft.
6. The Japanese crew is kept only for the comfort of the
one-time passengers, and is to be treated considerately, as
they are also d.e.s.
7. The d.e.s. are not allowed to talk with the crew.
At sea, October 6, 1917.
Kommando S.M.H. _Hitachi Maru_,
C. ROSE,
_Lt. z. See & Kommandant_.
Lieutenant Rose very kindly told me that as I was leaving the East for
good and therefore somewhat differently situated from the other
passengers, he would allow me to take in the lifeboat, in addition to a
handbag, a cabin trunk packed with the articles from Siam I most wanted
to save.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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