ur stay there, but it was
apparently thought not worth while to send any escort with the
_Hitachi_, though the value of her cargo was said to run into millions
sterling; and evidently the convoy system had not yet been adopted in
Eastern waters. A Japanese cruiser was also in Colombo harbour when we
arrived there, preceded by mine-sweepers, on September 24th. The
_Hitachi_ Captain and senior officers visited her before she sailed away
on the 25th. The Germans on the _Wolf_ told us that they heard her
wireless call when later on she struck one of their mines off Singapore,
but the Japanese authorities have since denied that one of their
cruisers struck a mine there.

The _Wolf_ remained alongside us till the morning of October 3rd, when
she sailed away at daybreak, leaving us anchored in the centre of the
atoll. It was a great relief to us when she departed; she kept all the
breeze off our side of the ship, so that the heat in our cabin was
stifling, and it was in addition very dark; the noise of coaling and
shifting cargo was incessant, and the roaring of the water between the
two ships most disturbing. Before she sailed away the Prize Captain
handed to my wife most of her jewels which had been recovered from the
bottom of our lifeboat. As many of these were Siamese jewellery and
unobtainable now, we were very rejoiced to obtain possession of them
again, but many rings were missing and were never recovered.

The falls of the lifeboats were all renewed, and on October 5th we had
places assigned to us in the lifeboats, and rules and regulations were
drawn up for the "detained enemy subjects" on board the _Hitachi_. They
were as follows:--

RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ON BOARD THE GERMAN AUXILIARY SHIP
"HITACHI MARU" DETAINED ENEMY SUBJECTS (d.e.s.).

1. Everybody on board is under martial law, and any offence
is liable to be punished by same.

2. All orders given by the Commander, First Officer, or any
of the German crew on duty are to be strictly obeyed.

3. After the order "Schiff abblenden" every evening at
sunset no lights may be shown on deck or through portholes,
etc., that are visible from outside.

4. The order "Alle Mann in die Boote" will be made known by
continuous ringing of the ship's bell and sounding of
gongs. Everybody hurries to his boat with the lifebelt and
leaves the ship. Everybody is allowed to take one small bag
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