CHAPTER X

SAVED BY SHIPWRECK

The Germans were now getting very anxious as they approached the blockade zone.  They affected, however, to believe that there was no blockade, and that there was no need of one now that America was in the war.  “No one will trade with us,” they said; “accordingly there is no need of a blockade.”  But, as some of the passengers remarked to the Captain, “If there is no blockade, as the Germans say, why haven’t you more raiders out, instead of only one, and why have so few been able to come out?” There was, of course, no answer to this!  The Captain further remarked that even if there were a blockade it would always be possible to get through it at the week-end, as all the British blockading fleet returned to port for that time!  The Wolf, he said, came out and got home through the blockade at the week-end.  It was quite simple; we were to do the same, and we should be escorted by submarines, as the Wolf had been on both occasions.

Nevertheless, the Germans were at great pains to keep as far as possible from any place in which British ships might appear.  But unfortunately not one did appear, here or anywhere else, to rescue us, although we felt certain in our own minds that some of our ships would be present and save us in these parts of the seas, which we believed were regularly patrolled.  What meetings, discussions, and consultations we had in our wretched tiny cabin during these dreadful days and nights!  We had cheered ourselves up for a long time past that the Wolf would never get through the British blockade, and that some friendly vessel would surely be the means of our salvation.  The Spanish officers who had had experience of the blockade also assured us that no vessel could possibly get through unchallenged; and we, in our turn, had assured the American captives among us of the same thing.  There was no fog to help the enemy, the condition of the moon was favourable to us, and we had pointed out to each other on maps various places where there must be British ships on the watch.  It was a bitter disappointment to us that we saw none.  It was heartbreaking.  We had built so much on our hopes; it was galling beyond words for the enemy to be in the right and ourselves mistaken.  But, after all, we reflected, what is one ship in this vast expanse of stormy seas?  In vain we tried to derive some comfort from this.  But, alas! we were on that one ship, which fact made all the difference!  We had been “hanging our hats” on the British Navy for so long—­surely we were not mistaken!  Surely, to change the metaphor, we were not going to be let down after all!  The British Navy, we knew, never let anybody down; but in our condition of protracted physical and nervous depression, it was not to be wondered at that thoughts of hopelessness were often present in our minds.

[Illustration:  THE IGOTZ MENDI ASHORE AT SKAGEN.