some of their garments on the table and settee in the
saloon--a muff, hats, gloves, etc. These the Danish Commander must have
seen; and not only that, for he saw some ladies who had stood in one
door of the saloon before they were sent to their cabins, when he
entered at the other one. He also saw the Australian Major of the
A.M.C., in khaki, and other passengers standing with the ladies in the
alley-way. If he had entertained any suspicions as to the correct
character of the ship, which the Germans were of course trying to
conceal, they must have been strongly confirmed by now. It was now too
late for us to be sent to our cabins, as a German sailor came and
ordered. We had achieved our object.

It was a night of great unrest, but finally most of us lay down in our
clothes. For very many nights we had been unable to rest properly owing
to the violence of the weather, the possibility of having to leave the
ship at any moment, and our general anxiety concerning our desperate
condition. We had not had our clothes off for many days. At 4 a.m. we
heard the engines working, as the Captain had told us they would, but
still no movement of the ship could be felt. How we prayed that the
ship might refuse to budge! She _did_ refuse, and soon the engines
ceased working; it was evident then that the attempt to get the ship off
must for the present be given up. The wind was rising and the sea
getting rougher, and at 6 a.m. a German sailor came and knocked at the
doors of all the cabins, saying, "Get up, and pack your baggage and go
ashore." _We were to go ashore? We, who had not seen the shore for
months, and had never expected to land on any, much less a free one,
were to go ashore?_ Were we dreaming? No, it was true, though it seemed
too good to be believed. Never was order more willingly and gladly
obeyed! But first we had to see how the ship stood with regard to the
shore; we went out on deck to look--there was the blessed green shore
less than half a mile away, the first really solid earth we had seen
close at hand since we left Colombo exactly five months before. Only
those who have seen nothing but the sea for many months can imagine with
what a thrill of joy we saw the shore and realized that we were saved at
last. We had seen the sea under nearly every aspect possible, from the
Equator to the Arctic regions, and we had appreciated more than ever
before its vastness. And yet in all these months, travelling these
thousands of