"We can thank that darkness for our escape. With no light on board, we went right across the bay; on both sides we could see the lights of the British warships, and the searchlight often explored the sea at a few metres' distance from us. We were all on deck waiting to be discovered, and to engage in a fight which could not possibly result in our favour. "At a certain moment a light, probably belonging to a fishing boat, attracted the attention of the British ships, and all the searchlights were concentrated on that spot. This almost certainly saved us. Slowly and silently we passed at a few hundred metres' distance from an Italian warship on sentinel near the Calabrese coast. If she had seen us we should have answered the signals, and that would have attracted the attention of the whole British squadron. "We thought we were quite out of danger, but when the morning broke we discovered a British ship following us. We increased our speed, but the other ship seemed to be as fast as we were. Then we decided to get rid of her, and while we went on by the side of the Greek coast the _Breslau_ got farther down in the open sea. The British ship stopped undecided; we opened fire on her, and she answered with a lot of shells, none of which reached either of our ships. Always fighting, we made our way forward. "Near the Greek Island of Cerigo we must have hit the boat with one of our torpedoes, as she seemed to lose speed and then suddenly stop. We lost sight of her, but after a few hours we came in sight of a ship hoisting a French flag. Before she saw us we changed our route and hid ourselves behind one of the Cyclades Islands, in a sort of triangle of sea from which we could see, unseen, in every direction. "We were very short of ammunition, coal, and everything else owing to the hurried departure from our base, and also to the long ride across the Mediterranean. There were also some urgent repairs to be done on board of our ship. The _Breslau_ was untouched. "We stayed in our refuge two days, and in the evening of the second day, hearing from some officers who had been sent out scouting with motor-boats that the route was free, we made our way to the Dardanelles. You know the rest of our story." "And what about the sale of the two ships to Turkey?" I asked candidly. "The sale was a very simple operation. We got our carpenters on board to paint the new names over the old ones. That was all. The job was not neatly done, that's true, as the old names were in embossed letters, and they always showed through, although they were painted grey!" he said laughingly. "We didn't even trouble to change the name on the lifeboats, etc., as we knew that in a few weeks' time that would not be of any more importance." "I suppose you have had rather a busy time in Constantinople during the last two months?"