ng still for days. The
weather was alternately still, rainy, and blowy. At length a ship, a
freighter, came in sight. It saw us and made a big curve around us. I
made everything hastily 'clear for battle.' Then one of our officers
recognized her for the _Choising_. She showed the German flag. I sent
up light rockets, although it was broad day, and went with all sails
set, that were still setable, toward her. The _Choising_ was a coaster
from Hongkong to Siam. She was at Singapore when the war broke out,
then went to Batavia, was chartered, loaded with coal for the enemy,
and had put into Padang in need, because the coal in the hold had
caught fire. There we had met her.

"Great was our joy now. I had all my men come on deck and line up for
review. The fellows hadn't a rag on. Thus, in nature's garb, we gave
three cheers for the German flag on the _Choising_. The men of the
Choising told us afterward 'We couldn't make out what that meant,
those stark-naked fellows all cheering.' The sea was too high, and we
had to wait two days before we could board the _Choising_ on December
16, 1914. We took very little with us; the schooner was taken in tow.
In the afternoon we sank the _Ayesha_ and were all very sad. The good
old _Ayesha_ had served us faithfully for six weeks. The log showed
that we had made 1,709 sea miles under sail since leaving Keeling. She
wasn't at all rotten and unseaworthy, as they had told me, but nice
and white and dry inside. I had grown fond of the boat, on which I
could practice my old sailing maneuvers. The only trouble was that the
sails would go to pieces every now and then, because they were so old.

"But anyway, she went down quite properly. We had bored a hole in her;
she filled slowly and then all of a sudden disappeared. That was the
saddest day of the whole month. We gave her three cheers, and my next
yacht at Kiel will be named _Ayesha_, that is sure.

"To the captain of the _Choising_ I had said, when I hailed him, 'I do
not know what will happen to the ship. The war situation may make it
necessary for me to strand it.' He did not want to undertake the
responsibility. I proposed that we work together, and I would take the
responsibility. Then we traveled together for three weeks, from Padang
to Hodeida. The _Choising_ was some ninety meters long, and had a
speed of nine miles, though sometimes only four. If she had not
accidentally arrived I had intended to cruise along the west coast of
S