I wanted to stay by the _Ayesha_ as long as she was afloat, so our steamer was stopped, and we lay to at a distance of three hundred to four hundred meters off from her. The loss of the brave little ship touched us deeply. Although our life on board had been anything but comfortable, we nevertheless all realized fully that it was to the _Ayesha_ we owed our liberty. For nearly a month and a half she had been our home. In that time she had carried us 1709 nautical miles. We all stood aft at the stern railing of the _Choising_, and watched the _Ayesha's_ last battle with the waves. Gradually, and very slowly, she sank lower and lower in the water. Soon it washed her upper deck. Then suddenly a shudder passed over the whole ship; she seemed to draw a long breath; the bow rose out of the water for a last time, only to plunge into it again the more deeply. The iron ballast rolled forward; standing on end, her rudder up, her masts flat on the water, the _Ayesha_ shot like a stone into the deep, never to be seen again. Three cheers for her rang out above her ocean grave. The day was the sixteenth of December, 1914, and the hour, fifty-eight minutes after four o'clock in the afternoon. Aboard the _Choising_, the first thing to be done was to order a course to the west, and the next, to see what provision could be made for my men. A place had already been prepared for them in a part of the ship ordinarily used for the storing of coal. It had been cleaned up, and mattresses, blankets, etc., sufficient for all, were in readiness, so that, in comparison with the days spent on the _Ayesha_, a life of luxury was before us. An ocean greyhound my new ship surely was not. When in the best of trim, she went at the rate of seven and one half miles, but there were times when we had to content ourselves with four. This was due, in part, to poor coal. The _Choising_ was a ship that had originally been intended for use as a coaling steamer for the _Emden_, and in this capacity had waited long for her at the appointed place. But, as the British Admiralty had been so obliging as to provide the _Emden_ most generously and considerately with the best of Welsh coal, although its intended destination was Hong Kong, there had been no reason why the _Emden_ should take on any of the poor quality of coal from India and Australia, which the _Choising_ had aboard for her. While waiting for the _Emden_ the _Choising's_ cargo of coal had got on fire, and we were now using what was left of this half-burned coal.