John Stanley Cameron

“ At 4:30 P.M. a man (who was afterwards my orderly) came to our room with cotton batting to put in our ears, as they were going to sink the Beluga by gun fire. I was granted permission to go onto the boat deck and watch. They fired nineteen shots at her with the six-inch gun forward, and the nineteenth shell hit her amidships. The other eighteen were clean misses—rotten shooting, as the target was only two and a half miles off. Beluga burst into flames and immediately when she caught fire the benzine exploded, making one of the most wonderful sights I have ever seen. ”

“ The danger was past, but there was a mighty nervous crew of men on board the Wolf that night. On the other hand, it was perhaps just as well for the Japanese cruiser that he did not spot us, because the minute he had made any signal and given us any indication that he had seen us, the Wolf would have launched both torpedos and given him a broadside, and at that short range they could not have missed very well. ”

“ One afternoon I asked Commander Nerger for permission to talk to some of the men, saying it was not healthy for a man to sit around all day and not say a word to anybody. This he granted, so after that I could hold short conversations with a good many members of the crew, and in a short time had practically the run of the ship. It was absolutely forbidden, however, for me to talk to any of the other prisoners who had been on board the Wolf for a long time and knew of its various mine-laying activities. ”

“ He lived in comfortable quarters on the boat deck, just under the bridge, and had his meals served in his private dining room. In the five months I was on the Wolf I do not think I saw him on the berth deck more than a dozen times, and then only on an inspection trip of some kind. He always had the appearance of having just stepped out of a bandbox, he was so immaculate in his dress. I was told by his officers that Nerger never gets excited; always remains cool under all circumstances. ”

“ When the Spanish Chief Officer was called, Rose asked him if he knew anything about the bombs. He answered: "Yes, I threw them overboard. I'll tell why. It was not for me, Captain Rose, but for the women and little children. I am not afraid of you. You can shoot me if you want to, but you can't drown the little children." Rose confined him to his room and the next time we met the Wolf Commander Nerger sentenced him to three years' imprisonment in a German military prison. ”

“ I can understand a landsman sinking a ship and thinking it a joke, but a sailor, to my mind, should feel sad at seeing the end of an honest vessel, may she belong to friend or enemy.
I know one German officer who told me that, when the Wolf returned to Germany, he would never go in a raider again; that he made his living going to sea and could not stand seeing ships sunk.
From the Chagos Islands we steamed toward the Cape of Good Hope, and on November 10th, at 6:30 A.M., Wolf captured the Spanish steamer Igotz Mendi with a cargo of coal from Delagoa Bay to Colombo for the British Government. ”

“ I don't believe that there were five men in all the crew of the Wolf, officers included, who ever expected the Wolf to win safely into Germany. There is another point to consider: why did Nerger and his officers continually assure us that the womenfolk should be landed shortly? If he had told the truth like an officer and a man and said he had no intention to land us, then we would have had more respect for him and would not have suffered the bitter disappointment that we did. ”

“ During my six weeks' stay in Denmark I have interviewed neutral sailors who have been sent out of Germany, and old men who have been passported out on account of extreme old age; also prisoners who have escaped over the border into Denmark via the coal-train route, and these men one and all paint a picture of a prisoner's life in Germany as being a veritable hell on earth. ”

“ Less than a month previous to this the Australian Government had sent wireless messages broadcast stating that there was a raider somewhere in the South Pacific or Indian Oceans, and giving a complete description of the Wolf. Yet here we were, steaming calmly along as if bound for Singapore, meeting many merchantmen, and at one time one of the officers said he could see the smoke from five torpedo boats steaming along in squadron section. When the Wolf would pass another vessel close to, she would usually have only a couple of men about the decks doing odd jobs of painting and repairing. ”

“ We had all been looking forward to eating our Christmas dinner at the island of Trinidad and were going to have a royal feed, as our German "hosts" were going to kill a pig and a cow that were on board the Igotz Mendi when captured. However, the Brazilian navy changed our plans as to where our dinner was to be eaten; though we had "Sir Pig" just the same. Owing to the sudden change of our plans (gaining freedom via Spain) we all felt very blue on Christmas day, which was not the enjoyable affair it would have been if everything had worked out as expected. ”

“ Captain Rose had often told us that in the event of our meeting a cruiser, we would go into the boats and the ship would be bombed and sunk. This was a very alluring proposition for a family man to look forward to but was better than the conditions on the Wolf, as there now were nearly 800 crew and prisoners on the Wolf, while its life-boats and rafts under the most favourable conditions could hold only 400, so it can easily be figured out just how much chance our poor chaps had of getting into the boats, in the event of the Wolf's meeting a superior enemy. ”

“ We sailed from San Francisco on the 15th day of May, 1917, with a cargo of 15,000 cases of benzine, for Sydney, Australia. After letting go the tug boat and getting sail on the ship, we all settled down for a quiet and uneventful passage. Seldom have I gone to sea under more favourable circumstances. A tight little vessel, a good deep water crew of Scandinavian sailor men, plenty of good wholesome provisions and a cook who knew his business. ”

“ One of the passengers on the Hitachi Maru, an American chap hailing from Chicago, told me his experience.
When the Wolf was first sighted he was in bed reading; someone told him that they were going to pass a steamer, and he got up and dressed and went on deck to watch her. There was speculation regarding her nationality among those watching although none of them imagined her anything but what she seemed—an ordinary tramp. When she dropped her ports and fired across their bow, everybody for a moment was dumbfounded. ”

“ X, steward of the Metunga, was quartered on the top deck with the rest of the womenfolks. Mrs. X was an Australian woman of middle age and the widow of a Chief Engineer in the same company that owned the Metunga. After her transfer to the Wolf, she was ordered by the German officers to take care of the ladies' quarters. On account of the overbearing and insolent manners of some of her fellow shipmates, she refused duty, stating that she was a British subject and a prisoner of war and entitled to the same treatment as the rest of the women prisoners. ”

“ The Igotz Mendi was a product of war-times, being built in 1916, and built in the cheapest possible manner, both in hull, equipment and accommodations. In her saloon, ten of us could sit down fairly comfortably in good weather, but when the vessel was rolling as nearly always was the case, only eight could sit down at the table, as the chairs at the ends were not stationary. We were waited upon by a steward named "Manuel." Manuel was quite a character and had his own ideas about how much a man should have a day for two pesetas. ”

“ I feel sure that should a waiter in a restaurant ever suggest crab to any of the ex-prisoners on the Wolf, he would have a very unpleasant time of it. During the night of the 6th, the Wolf left us, taking a more northerly route than we. At this time, Lieutenant Rose had told the Spanish ex-Captain that we were en route to Trinidad Island, Brazil, where Wolf would get what additional coal she required, and then we, the Igotz Mendi, should, after waiting 10 days at the island, proceed to Spain. ”

“ It was here that the married folks with their wives along, sent a written petition to the Commander of the Wolf, begging to be given one of the Hitachi life-boats and a supply of provisions, so that on the eve of the Wolf's departure for parts unknown, we could make our way to one of these islands and there await the arrival of some trading schooner to take us to civilisation again. Nerger sent word back that he could not do that, and repeated the same old "bull" about landing us in some safe place, some time. ”

“ The engineer told Rose that if he cut out a lot of his private champagne suppers and looked into what the rest of us were getting it would not be necessary to make these complaints.
This is a condition that could not exist on the Wolf because there we were under the charge of a gentleman and an officer and we got square treatment, but on the Hitachi and later on the Igotz Mendi we were under a sub-lieutenant, a snob and a man who did not know the meaning of the word gentleman. In my opinion it is this class of "under officer" that gives the Germans the unenviable reputation that they have. ”

“ Captain Cameron went to sea at the age of three. At thirteen he was earning his living as an able-bodied seaman, and he has been a master of sailing vessels since he was twenty-one. He figured in the news some few years ago by taking a sailing yacht of seventy-four tons from New York to San Francisco; the smallest vessel of her class to beat through the Straits of Magellan. Since then, Captain Cameron has retired from sea—until his last trip as master of the Beluga. ”

“ There were men standing around all through these quarters. Suddenly the officer turned on a man standing there and said: "You're not a German." The man answered saying: "No, sir; I am a Dane." "Well, what are you doing here?" was the next question. The Dane, Jensen, told him he was from the Wolf and was working here on the Igotz Mendi, and that there were American and British prisoners on board, including some women and children. After completing his rounds, the Danish officer went on deck and told Lieutenant Lagoni that he was ready, and calling him aside, told him what he had found out. ”

“ Among the purchases was an alleged New Guinea pig, which had the legs and body of a deer and the head of a porker—and it had fur, too. God! I never saw anything like it. It didn't have an orthodox corkscrew tail but a compromise between a pig's and a deer's tail. The pig mascot was given the freedom of the Wolf and dashed if it didn't lick every dog on the ship. We had seven dogs on board, taken from sunken ships—dachshunds, fox terriers, all sorts—and the pugnacious deer-pig cleaned them all up. ”

“ We ran south for a couple of days and waited around to see if the Wolf made it or not, and as she did not return, we concluded she had either got through or passed to the southward of Iceland, chancing the blockade. The cold here was very intense and caused a lot of suffering amongst us. Helped by some of the German sailors, I fixed a place in an empty bunker, where my wife, Nita and myself practically lived, only going in the cabin for meals and to sleep. Lieutenant Rose had canvas put up here for us and lights put in so that I could lie there and read, and the wife could sit and sew. ”

“ At one time he would engage her in battle and finally after a fierce encounter, by superior manœuvring he would destroy her. The next time the Matunga would be an enemy's merchant vessel and the Wolf would sneak up to her, suddenly dropping her ports, and make the capture. This manœuvre was carried out quite realistically, the boarding crew supposedly meeting resistance and finally taking charge of her after a fight on deck, in which the boarding crew's bayonet drill would come in handy. At another time the Matunga would be a German cruiser and Nerger would direct her attack against the enemy. ”

“ We were allowed a seventy-foot run-way. Also when anything was going on, such as gun practice, boarding drill, fire and boat drill, we were chased into our rooms. This caused a lot of grumbling but no doubt it was justified. I may add that there was nearly always something doing on the Wolf. They drilled and practised almost continually—practised sinking imaginary ships, indulged in "battle practice," and even practised abandoning the Wolf in boats and sinking their own ship.
While lying at Pirate Cove we had an exciting experience. ”

“ The gang of men on the Wolf trimming the coal in the bunkers could not handle the coal as fast as the other gang brought it to them, so, rather than delay the coaling, to save every minute, they dumped the coal on deck; and when the vessels were forced to part owing to the increasing swells, both guns and both torpedo tubes on the after deck were covered with coal. If a cruiser had happened along at that particular moment, the Wolf's after battery would have been out of commission. ”