Igotz Mendi_, of Bilbao, and
she was flying the Spanish flag. In a short time a prize crew, with
Lieutenant Rose in command, left the _Wolf_ in her motor launch, and
proceeded to the other ship. After they had been aboard her a few
minutes, a message came back that the Spanish ship was from Delagoa Bay
to Colombo with a cargo of 5,800 tons of coal for the British Admiralty
authorities in Ceylon. So the Germans would not after all have to intern
the _Wolf_ and her prize in a neutral country--if she could reach
one--at any rate from lack of coal, as we fondly imagined might have
been the case. Here was just the cargo our captors wanted to annex, but
the chagrin of the Germans may be imagined when they realized that they
had captured this ship just three days too late to save the _Hitachi_.
Here was a ship with ample coal which, had it been captured a few days
before, would have enabled the Germans to save the _Hitachi_ and take
her as a prize to Germany, with all of us on board as prisoners, as they
had always desired to do. Other German raiders had occasionally been
able to do so with one or two of their prizes. Had the _Hitachi_ arrived
in Germany, she would have been rechristened the _Luchs_, the name of a
former German war vessel with which the Prize Captain had had
associations.

The _Igotz Mendi_ had left Lourenco Marques on November 5th, and was due
at Colombo on the 22nd. Before 9 a.m. on the morning of the capture both
ships had turned about, the prize now being in command of the Germans,
and were going back on the course the _Wolf_ had followed since the
destruction of the _Hitachi_. Discussion was rife among the prisoners as
to what would be done with the new capture, and whether the Commander of
the _Wolf_ would redeem his promise to transfer the married couples to
the "next ship caught."

CHAPTER VI

ANOTHER PRIZE--OUR FUTURE HOME

The two ships steamed along in company for the next three days, usually
stopping towards sunset for communications and sending orders. On
Sunday, the 11th, we were invited to a band performance on the well deck
forward. It was quite a good one. The first mate came along and jokingly
said to us, "What more can you want? We give you a free passage, free
food, and even free music." I replied, "We only want one more thing
free." "What is that?" he asked. "Freedom," I answered. "Ah!" he said,
smiling, "I am afraid you must wait for that a little time."

I had asked him ear