e
frequently made the saloon so exclusively his own, it was often
appropriately named the "Salon de luxe." Poor Luchs! Every man's hand,
or rather foot--with the exception of the Captain's--was against him
(when the Captain was not looking!) on account of his reprehensible
behaviour. Many a sly kick was aimed at him, and when a yelp assured us
that the blow had struck home, one of us would exclaim, "Hooray for our
side!"; "our side" being all who suffered from his bad conduct. The
table "appointments" were often disgusting. The tablecloth was filthy
after the first meal or so, thanks to the rolling of the ship and
consequent upsetting of soup, tea, and coffee, but was only changed
twice, sometimes only once, a week. Cups were used without saucers, and
spoons gradually disappeared, so that towards the end one had to suffice
between four or five persons.

The ship, generally speaking, was filthy--she was never properly clean.
I remember on one occasion a large bottle of castor-oil was smashed just
outside the saloon door. The stuff remained there for hours before being
cleaned up. The crew certainly was not large, but a great deal more
could have been done in the direction of keeping the ship clean, and her
condition was never a credit to her Captain. This was a surprise to
those of us who had previously travelled on German ships.

We got thoroughly sick of the food provided, but the German officers and
crew had just the same. The _Hitachi_ had been carrying ten thousand
cases of Japanese canned crab to England. A great part of this was
saved, and divided between the _Wolf_ and her prize. None of us ever
want to see or hear of this commodity again; we were fed on it till most
of us loathed it, but as there was nothing else to eat when it was
served, we perforce had to eat that or dry bread, and several of us
chose the latter. How we groaned when we saw any more crab being
brought over from the _Wolf_! Bully beef, every variety of bean, dried
vegetables, dried fish that audibly announced its advent to the table,
bean soup, and pea soup (maggot soup would often have been a more
correct description), we got just as sick of, till, long before the end,
all the food served nauseated us. Tea, sometimes made in a coffee-pot,
sometimes even with salt water, was the usual hot drink provided, but
coffee was for some time available once a day. We owe a great debt to
one of our fellow-prisoners, a ship's cook, captured from one of th