The “catched” vessel had stopped and was lying very near the Wolf.  The name on her stern proclaimed her to be the Igotz Mendi, of Bilbao, and she was flying the Spanish flag.  In a short time a prize crew, with Lieutenant Rose in command, left the Wolf in her motor launch, and proceeded to the other ship.  After they had been aboard her a few minutes, a message came back that the Spanish ship was from Delagoa Bay to Colombo with a cargo of 5,800 tons of coal for the British Admiralty authorities in Ceylon.  So the Germans would not after all have to intern the Wolf and her prize in a neutral country—­if she could reach one—­at any rate from lack of coal, as we fondly imagined might have been the case.  Here was just the cargo our captors wanted to annex, but the chagrin of the Germans may be imagined when they realized that they had captured this ship just three days too late to save the Hitachi.  Here was a ship with ample coal which, had it been captured a few days before, would have enabled the Germans to save the Hitachi and take her as a prize to Germany, with all of us on board as prisoners, as they had always desired to do.  Other German raiders had occasionally been able to do so with one or two of their prizes.  Had the Hitachi arrived in Germany, she would have been rechristened the Luchs, the name of a former German war vessel with which the Prize Captain had had associations.

The Igotz Mendi had left Lourenco Marques on November 5th, and was due at Colombo on the 22nd.  Before 9 a.m. on the morning of the capture both ships had turned about, the prize now being in command of the Germans, and were going back on the course the Wolf had followed since the destruction of the Hitachi.  Discussion was rife among the prisoners as to what would be done with the new capture, and whether the Commander of the Wolf would redeem his promise to transfer the married couples to the “next ship caught.”

CHAPTER VI

ANOTHER PRIZE—­OUR FUTURE HOME

The two ships steamed along in company for the next three days, usually stopping towards sunset for communications and sending orders.  On Sunday, the 11th, we were invited to a band performance on the well deck forward.  It was quite a good one.  The first mate came along and jokingly said to us, “What more can you want?  We give you a free passage, free food, and even free music.”  I replied, “We only want one more thing free.”  “What is that?” he asked.  “Freedom,” I answered.  “Ah!” he said, smiling, “I am afraid you must wait for that a little time.”

I had asked him earlier in the day if he would allow us the use of a room and a piano for a short time in the afternoon, so that we could keep up our custom of singing a few hymns on Sunday.  Later on, he told me we might, with the permission of the officers, have their wardroom for half an hour.  The officers and he had kindly agreed to this, a concession we much appreciated, and the little wardroom was crowded indeed on that occasion.