"IGOTZ MENDI" ASHORE ON THE DANISH COAST. TAKEN THE MORNING WE LANDED, FEBRUARY 26TH, 1918.
LIFE BOAT LEAVING THE BEACH FOR THE STRANDED "IGOTZ MENDI".
Of course during all this talk we prisoners knew nothing at all of what was going on, and when we saw the Danish officers leaving we came to the conclusion that our case was lost, and as there was an armed sentry pacing back and forth in front of the two doors leading from the cabin to the deck, it looked black indeed, and I for one felt very, very disappointed. The strain was beginning to tell on my wife again; so we both lay down on the bunk with our clothes on and listened to Rose on the bridge, ringing the telegraph and working his engines in a vain attempt to get his vessel off the beach. As I lay there thinking, I could not but pity Rose, realising how he must have felt.
Just imagine what his feelings must have been on realising that after spending fifteen months on a raiding and mine laying cruise, and always evading his enemies, he had run his vessel aground almost at the gates of Germany, and in place of receiving the Iron Cross first class, there was the possibility of his facing court martial on his arrival home, provided of course he was lucky enough to escape internment. Thinking this I fell asleep and at 6:30 A.M. of February 25th (shall I ever forget the date?) I was awakened by one of the German seamen named "Hans" knocking at my door and saying: "Kapitaine, Kapitaine, wake up and get ready to go ashore in the boats." I'll bet we broke all speed records getting on deck. Rose asked me to get into the life-saving boat first, as the Danish crew could not speak English, and then I could help the balance as they came down the ladder. I got Juanita firmly on my back and climbed down into the boat. There was a large sea running and as the Igotz Mendi was stationary on the bottom and the life-boat was riding on the seas, one moment it would be even with my feet and in another would be fifteen feet below. The idea was to jump at that instant the boat was even with me. This was easy enough with myself and wife, who understood such things and had had previous experience, but to the balance of the passengers it was hard to make them let go at the right time; they all having a tendency to hang on until the boat had started to go down again. Then, if they should let go, the drop was so great that the men in the life-boat could not hold them when they tried to catch them.
In some cases it was necessary absolutely to tear the passengers off the ladder by main force. However, we finally got all the women, children and men into the boat and we started for the beach. When we got into the breakers and the seas washed clean over us, many thought it would be a case of swim or drown, not reckoning on the kind of life-boat we were in or on the class of men that manned it.
I have seen various life-crews at drill and I spent a season on the beach at Cape Nome, where everything is surf work, but these old Danes, averaging fifty years of age and the living caricatures of that great soap advertisement, "Life Buoy Soap," familiar to all the reading public, were in a class by themselves. On entering the breakers, they dropped a kedge anchor with a long line on it, and literally slacked the boat through. A gigantic comber, one of those curling ones, just commencing to break, would rush upon us; up would go the stern of the boat and just at the instant that I would expect her to go end for end, the old "Sinbad" tending the anchor line would check her and in another instant we would rush for the beach, just as the Kanakas ride the surf on a board at Honolulu. When we finally grounded the men from the beach ran out and seized the women, the balance then ran the boat higher up the beach. The natives must have thought that we were a bunch of raving maniacs, the way we carried on, getting our feet on good "terra firma" again. We danced, we shouted, and cheered, and made damn fools of ourselves generally; but to my mind the situation warranted it. What a fitting climax to an adventure of this kind ... eight months a prisoner on a Teuton raider, and set free at the very gates of Germany, at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute. It is hard to realise just what this meant to us all—possibly the very lives of my wife and kiddie, as I feel sure that they could not have stood much more, and at the best, there was from one to a possible five years' being buried alive in a German internment camp, and living under the conditions that I know to exist in that country.
We were taken to the nearby lighthouse, where the keepers and their families did everything possible for us, drying our clothes and giving us hot coffee to warm ourselves. About midday we went into Skagen, two miles distant, and separated, going to various hotels. My family and I put up at the Sailors' Home and were excellently taken care of by our host, Mr. Borg Hansen. I wish to go on record here as saying that at no place that I have ever been in have I met a more whole-souled, more hospitable or more likable class of people in my life than these Danish people of the little town of Skagen. I met people there who were the quintessence of courtesy and hospitality; in fact, they were "regular Danish ladies and gentlemen." Here at Skagen our various Consuls took us in charge and sent us to Copenhagen, where we separated, going our several ways.
APPENDIX
During her fifteen months' cruise the Wolf laid approximately five hundred mines and captured fourteen vessels, as follows:
1. British tank s/s. "TURITELLA," 7300 gross tons, Captain S.G. Meadows, captured on February 27, 1917, in the Indian Ocean, bound from Rangoon to Europe with a cargo of oil. The captain and officers were taken off this vessel and transferred to the Wolf. A crew of German officers and mine-men were put on board of her, under charge of Lieutenant-Commander Brandes, ex-chief officer of the Wolf, and she was sent away as a mine layer, laying mines at Bombay and at Calcutta, and was afterwards captured at Aden, while laying mines, by a British gun-boat; and her crew of Chinamen were sent back to China, while her German officers were taken prisoners.
2. British s/s. "JUMMA," 6050 gross tons, Captain Shaw Wickerman, bound from Torreirja, Spain, to Calcutta with a cargo of salt. Captured in the Indian Ocean, March 1st. After what coal and stores she had on board had been removed, she was bombed on the morning of March 3rd in latitude 8 degrees 9 minutes north and longitude 62 degrees 1 minute east.
3. British s/s. "WADSWORTH," of London, 3509 gross tons, built in 1915, Captain John Shields, captured on March 11th, in latitude 54 degrees 30 minutes north and longitude 67 degrees east. After taking off about fifteen tons of rice and ship's stores the vessel was bombed on the 18th. Wadsworth was bound from Bassinia, India, to London with a cargo of rice, and was six days out from Colombo.
4. Mauritius bark "DEE," 1200 tons, Captain Ruug, bound from Mauritius to Bundbury, Australia, in ballast, thirty-nine days out. Captured May 21st, 300 miles off the west coast of Australia. Crew of blacks and stores taken on board the Wolf and the vessel immediately bombed.
5. New Zealand s/s. "WAIRUNA," of the Union S/S. Co. Line, of New Zealand, Captain John Saunders, with general cargo from Auckland to San Francisco. Captured May 21st off Sunday Island by seaplane. The Wolf was lying behind Sunday Island cleaning and repairing boilers at the time of capture. The flying machine flew over the Wairuna and dropped a message attached to a sandbag, saying to steer towards the Wolf or the flying machine would drop bombs on her. Thus she was taken by the raider. After taking off some forty live sheep and ship's stores and about 900 tons of coal, she was sunk by one bomb and fifteen shells. While towing the Wairuna to sea, Wolf discovered the schooner Winslow.
6. American schooner "WINSLOW," 566 gross tons, Captain Trudgett, bound from Sydney to Samoa, with general cargo. Captured off Sunday Island on June 7th by the seaplane while Wolf was sinking the Wairuna. After removing ship's stores and some 450 tons of coal the Winslow was sunk on June 21st by four bombs and thirty-nine shells, the old wooden box simply refusing to sink.
7. American bark "BELUGA," of San Francisco, 590 gross tons, Captain Cameron, bound from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, with a cargo of benzine. Captured latitude south 26 degrees, on July 9th. After removing 300 cases of oil, the stores and boatswain's supplies, the Beluga was set on fire on July 11th by gun fire, by the nineteenth shot.
8. American schooner "ENCORE," 651 gross tons, Captain Oleson, bound from Columbia River to Sydney, Australia, with a load of lumber. Captured July 16th in latitude south 21 degrees and longitude east 169 degrees. After removing stores she was set on fire and left.
9. Australian s/s. "MATUNGA," of the Burns & Phillips Line, Captain Donaldson, en route from Sydney to Rabul, New Guinea. Captured August 4th, about 122 miles southwest of Rabul. Both vessels proceeded from this point to Pirate's Cove, at the northernmost end of New Guinea, arriving there on August 10th. Transferred cargo to the Wolf, amounting to some 850 tons of coal and 350 tons of supplies; also prisoners (passengers), including two army medical corps officers and three military captains. On August 26th Wolf proceeded to sea and sunk the Matunga by three bombs, vessel sinking in six and one-half minutes. Full particulars of the Matunga's cargo was picked up by the Wolf in a wireless message to her consignees, giving a copy of her outward manifest, also all sailing dates from time to time by Burns & Phillips themselves.
10. Japanese s/s. "HITACHI MARU," of the N.Y.K. Co., 6558 gross tons, Captain Kokmoa, en route from Colombo to England, via African ports. Captured on September 26th off the Maldive Islands and proceeded to southernmost group of the Maldives, where 800 tons of bunker coal were transferred to the Wolf, also 250 tons of copper and tin, silk, tea, approximately 400 tons of rubber, further cocoanuts and hides. On October 7th both vessels proceeded in different directions, the Wolf seeking for another vessel with coal while the Hitachi loafed along in a general southeasterly direction. Wolf picked up Hitachi again on October 19th, forty-two miles west of the Chagos group. On October 20th both vessels arrived at the Chagos Islands and tied up together. Additional rubber and silk and remaining coal were transferred to the Wolf. On the morning of November 7th both vessels left Chagos and the Hitachi was bombed.
11. Spanish steamer "IGOTZ MENDI," of Bilboa, 4648 tons. Captured in the Indian Ocean November 10th, en route from Delagoa Bay to Colombo with a cargo of coal. This vessel was sent to Germany, but grounded off Denmark.
12. American bark "WILLIAM KIRBY," 1200 tons, of New York, Captain Blum, from New York to Port Elizabeth, Africa, with a general cargo; captured on November 15th. Crew, provisions and stores were taken off and the vessel bombed on November 16th. She was captured 320 miles southeast of Port Elizabeth.
13. French bark "MARECHAL DAVOUST," 1100 tons, from Delagoa Bay to France with a cargo of wheat. Captured on December 14th. This vessel was armed and equipped with wireless. Guns and provisions were transferred to the Wolf and the vessel sunk on the 15th by bombs. Captured 130 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.
14. Norwegian bark "STOREBROR," 2000 tons, Captain Moller, bound for Europe from Montevideo in ballast. Captured on January 5th in latitude 18 degrees south and 27 degrees west. Crew, provisions and stores transferred to the Wolf and vessel bombed.