We were at liberty to go practically where we liked on board, but we were never able to get far away from the German sailors, who always appeared to be listening to our conversation, no matter where we were.  As on the Wolf, they were sometimes caught spying on us, and listening at the portholes or ventilators of our cabins.

We next picked up the Wolf on the afternoon of December 19th, and heard that since we had last seen her she had sunk a French sailing vessel, the Marechal Davout, loaded with grain for Europe.  The Wolf usually sent us over a budget of wireless news when she had been away from us any length of time.  I remember an item of news on one occasion, in which Mr. Lloyd George in a speech said we were getting on the track of the submarines and that we had sunk five in one day.  This gave great mirth to the Germans, who naturally refused to believe it—­they said they had lost only a dozen since the war began!  On one occasion the Captain informed us of a “great British victory.  Joy-bells are ringing all over England.  The British have captured a trench and have advanced ten yards!” This was the victory at Cambrai!

The two ships proceeded on parallel courses for Trinidad, but about 8 p.m. both ships turned sharply round and doubled on their tracks, proceeding on a south-easterly course at full speed.  We learnt the reason for this the next day.  German raiders had previously coaled and hidden at Trinidad; but Brazil was now in the war, so that hole was stopped, and the Wolf had intercepted a wireless from the Commander of a Brazilian cruiser to the garrison on Trinidad.  Hence her rapid flight!  But for that wireless message, the Wolf would have walked right into the trap, and we should have been free within twelve hours from the time the Wolf picked up the message.

Once again wireless had been our undoing.  The Hitachi had wirelessed the hour of her arrival at and departure from Singapore and Colombo; the Wolf, of course, had picked up the messages and was ready waiting for her.  One other ship, if not more, was caught in just the same way.  The Matunga had wirelessed, not even in code, her departure, with the nature of her cargo, from Sydney to New Guinea, and she wirelessed again when within a few hours of her destination.  The Wolf waited for her, informed her that she had on board just the cargo the Wolf needed, captured, and afterwards sunk her.  The Wolf’s success in capturing ships and evading hostile cruisers was certainly due to her intercepting apparently indiscriminate wirelessing between ships, and between ships and shore—­at one time in the Indian Ocean the Wolf was picking up news in four languages—­and to her seaplane, which enabled her to scout thoroughly and to spot an enemy ship long before she could have been seen by the enemy.  Thus the Wolf’s procedure when hunting for her prey was simplicity itself.  Even without wireless her seaplane was of enormous assistance to her.  If her “bird” had revealed the presence of a ship more heavily armed than the Wolf chose to tackle, she could easily make herself scarce, while if the ship seen was not at all, or but lightly armed, all that the Wolf had to do was to wait for her on the course she was taking.