Both the _Wolf_ and _Igotz Mendi_ now proceeded together toward the Island of Trinidad and expected to get there early on the morning of December 20th. I had made arrangements with Lieutenant Rose so that I could have a jolly boat in the morning and the wife and I go fishing off the rocks on the lee side of the island, as this island is celebrated for its good sea bass fishing. At 9:30 P.M. on the 19th, while pacing the deck with the wife before retiring, I noticed that the _Wolf_ suddenly changed her course to the Northward and signalled us with her flash light. We immediately changed also, and put on all available speed to the northward after the _Wolf_. Soon the explanation came: there were two cruisers of the Brazilian Navy anchored at Trinidad and the _Wolf_ had picked up a wireless message from one of them to the Brazilian authorities. Needless to say, it didn't take Commander Nerger long to decide that he had business elsewhere. If these confounded gossipy cruisers had not used their wireless, in another few hours we should have run right into their arms. On the other hand, if they had been lying in the harbour of some big sea port as seems to be the custom with battle ships, and not off Trinidad Island, we should probably have carried out the regular schedule of freedom via Spain. Of the two, I should much have preferred the Brazilian navy to rescue us, as then I should have been sure of freedom, while on the other hand, I had only Rose's word that we would proceed to Spain. There was a bitter gloom on our ship for a good while after this; in fact the spirits of the prisoners never regained their previous buoyancy. The great question now was "What next?" We could see only Germany ahead of us, and that was not very encouraging. For myself, I felt quite confident that we should never get through the blockade and the mine fields. Captain Rose had often told us that in the event of our meeting a cruiser, we would go into the boats and the ship would be bombed and sunk. This was a very alluring proposition for a family man to look forward to but was better than the conditions on the _Wolf_, as there now were nearly 800 crew and prisoners on the _Wolf_, while its life-boats and rafts under the most favourable conditions could hold only 400, so it can easily be figured out just how much chance our poor chaps had of getting into the boats, in the event of the _Wolf's_ meeting a superior enemy. Probably they would be battened down below in the hold, and would be sent down to "Davey Jones' Locker" with the _Wolf_. In our case on the _Igotz Mendi_ we were about thirty souls to a boat, and if the weather conditions were favourable and we had a little luck, we should have been all right. The women naturally lived in a continual dread of having to go into the boats.