USS Wolf

“ 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. ”

“ Maud said, with sudden conviction.
We sprang together for the ladder, but I raced past her to the deck. A dense volume of smoke was pouring out of the steerage companionway.
"The Wolf is not yet dead," I muttered to myself as I sprang down through the smoke.
It was so thick in the confined space that I was compelled to feel my way; and so potent was the spell of Wolf Larsen on my imagination, I was quite prepared for the helpless giant to grip my neck in a strangle hold. I hesitated, the desire to race back and up the steps to the deck almost overpowering me. Then I recollected Maud. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At Pirate Cove naked New Guineans, men, women and children, came out to the Wolf in thirty feet long canoes for tobacco, which was the only understandable word they could say. They offered to swap parrots, pigs, cocoanuts, sugar cane, bits of coral, woven mats of garish colours and queer pattern, showing whales, birds and primitive human figures. The Wolf's officers got first whack at the bargains and went in strong for the fancy mattings, but when they got them aboard found them full of native vermin. ”

“ Each time that she reappeared was a miracle.
The Ghost suddenly changed her course, keeping away, and it came to me with a shock that Wolf Larsen was giving up the rescue as impossible. Then I realized that he was preparing to heave to, and dropped to the deck to be in readiness. We were now dead before the wind, the boat far away and abreast of us. I felt an abrupt easing of the schooner, a loss for the moment of all strain and pressure, coupled with a swift acceleration of speed. She was rushing around on her heel into the wind. ”

“ We ran past our line of boats and bore down upon the first weather boat of the other line.
“Down that flying jib, Mr. Van Weyden,” Wolf Larsen commanded. “And stand by to back over the jibs.”
I ran forward and had the downhaul of the flying jib all in and fast as we slipped by the boat a hundred feet to leeward. The three men in it gazed at us suspiciously. They had been hogging the sea, and they knew Wolf Larsen, by reputation at any rate. I noted that the hunter, a huge Scandinavian sitting in the bow, held his rifle, ready to hand, across his knees. ”

“ The steerage, where were two wounded hunters, was a repetition of the forecastle, except that Wolf Larsen was not being cursed; and it was with a great relief that I again emerged on deck and went aft to the cabin. Supper was ready, and Wolf Larsen and Maud were waiting for me.
While all his ship was getting drunk as fast as it could, he remained sober. Not a drop of liquor passed his lips. He did not dare it under the circumstances, for he had only Louis and me to depend upon, and Louis was even now at the wheel. We were sailing on through the fog without a lookout and without lights. ”

“ Of course much grumbling went on, and little outbursts were continually occurring. Blows were struck, and there were always two or three men nursing injuries at the hands of the human beast who was their master. Concerted action was impossible in face of the heavy arsenal of weapons carried in the steerage and cabin. Leach and Johnson were the two particular victims of Wolf Larsen’s diabolic temper, and the look of profound melancholy which had settled on Johnson’s face and in his eyes made my heart bleed. ”

“ We squared away and ran for it. My heart was as lead. felt myself turning sick in anticipation; and as I looked at the gleam of triumph in Wolf Larsen's eyes, his form swam before me and I felt almost irresistibly impelled to fling myself upon him. So unnerved was I by the thought of impending violence to Leach and Johnson that my reason must have left me. I know that I slipped down into the steerage in a daze, and that I was just beginning the ascent to the deck, a loaded shot-gun in my hands, when I heard the startled cry:
"There's five men in that boat!" ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then the Wolf suddenly revealed her true character by running up the German flag, dropping a portion of her forward bulwarks, exposing the muzzles of her guns, and firing a shot across the bows of the Matunga. At the same time the Wolf sent a seaplane to circle over the Matunga at a low altitude for the obvious purpose of ascertaining whether the latter was armed. Apparently satisfied with the seaplane's report, the German Captain sent a prize crew, armed with bayonets and pistols, to take possession of the British ship. ”

“ Next morning No. 3 boat and Johnson and Leach were missing. The water-breakers and grub boxes from all the other boats were likewise missing, as were the beds and sea bags of the two men. Wolf Larsen was furious. He set sail and bore away into the west-northwest, two hunters constantly at the mastheads and sweeping the sea with glasses, himself pacing the deck like an angry lion. He knew too well my sympathy for the runaways to send me aloft as lookout. ”

“ In the top one lay Oofty-Oofty, a Kanaka and splendid seaman, so named by his mates. He was asleep on his back and breathing as placidly as a woman. One arm was under his head, the other lay on top of the blankets. Wolf Larsen put thumb and forefinger to the wrist and counted the pulse. In the midst of it the Kanaka roused. He awoke as gently as he slept. There was no movement of the body whatever. The eyes, only, moved. They flashed wide open, big and black, and stared, unblinking, into our faces. Wolf Larsen put his finger to his lips as a sign for silence, and the eyes closed again. ”

“ The Wolf was secure from all interference—nothing could avert the final tragedy. The many witnesses who would have helped the victim were powerless; we could but stand and watch with impotent fury and great sorrow and pity the inevitable fate to which the Hitachi was doomed, and of which the captors and captives on the Wolf were the only witnesses. But one man among us refused to look on—the Japanese Captain refused to be a spectator of the wilful destruction of his ship, which had so long been his home. ”

“ Many of these men will remember this experience for the balance of their lives.
By this time the Japanese captain had decided that he did not have a chance, and stopped his vessel, while the Wolf sent the prize crew on board. In the meantime the passengers and crew had managed to get clear in the life-boats, which were picked up. The people were taken on board the Wolf. There were some 70 odd passengers, 1st and 2nd class, among them 6 women and one little black girl. They were a sorry looking sight as they climbed on board the Wolf ”

“ 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 will not even grant his last wish; for here, in mid ocean, he grapples with death. All day long those fair young faces have bent over him, and his friend, the Captain, has been there with them, and little Flora has hovered near with trembling lips, whispering softly, "I am so wery, wery, sorry."
As the evening draws on, the sick man revives a little, and in a low, rapid tone, says something to his sister, which we do not hear, but with a few hurried words to Little Wolf, she moves away with the Captain and Flora, and Little Wolf is left alone with the dying. ”

“ Brauls touched a button and from jets on either side of the car small streams shot forth with sudden ferocity. These jets sprayed water under tremendous hydraulic pressure, jets which would cut wood faster than any saw and which hissed hungrily as they began to roll toward the dog.
Captain de Wolf tried to drop his eyes. He could not. The little car crept up on the dog and then the jets began to carve away, a fraction of an inch at a time—De Wolf managed to look away. The shrieks of agony which came from the dog carved through De Wolf. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Through a fellow member of the Police Dog Club of America, who had been commissioned by the U. S. Government as official trainer, I had Wolf enlisted for war service and he was sent to Athens, Georgia, to complete his training. After the War Department concluded to debar war dog service, he was turned over to the French War Department, and in December, 1917, was sent to France. In June, 1918, I received a picture of Wolf, showing him in camp in company with two French soldiers, apparently enjoying the novel experience of fighting with the enemies of his native land. ”

“ With a thong of buckskin he tied the bundle to the ridgepole, at the very rear of the tent and almost at the brink of the river. But every day the thought of their possession was dearer to him. Soon he could leave the dreadful forest, and take them with him down into the valleys. Men would admire them there, and many would try to buy them. He wondered if any of these admiring men would try to kill him for them.
But his self-control was not so perfect that he could shut out certain haunting memories. And all at once Wolf remembered that his brother had been a particularly able swimmer. ”

“ But the manifest point was that the waters outside the three-mile limit were contiguous to the American coast, and provided highways for American shipping, coastwise and foreign. The proximity of German submarines, even though they confined their attention to Allied shipping to and from American ports, constituted too great a menace to the free movement of the American mercantile marine.
A wolf at a man's door is none the less dangerous because the wolf is lying in wait for the appearance of an inmate of the man's house and not for the man himself. ”

“ If only there had been a couple of cruisers disguised, like the Wolf, as tramps, each one carrying a seaplane or two, in each ocean free from submarine attentions, the Wolf could have been seen and her career brought to an end long before. The same end would probably have been attained on this occasion if a wireless message had been sent from Delagoa Bay to Colombo saying that the Igotz Mendi had left the former port for the latter with 5,000 tons of coal on board. ”

“ Wolf was a man of peace, and would not take a human life unless it was necessary to save his own men. But he must do something to over-awe these savages. He showed the chief a revolver, and told him it carried lightning that killed men. Then he held the weapon so that its discharge would hurt no one, but the barrel was close to the King's ear. He pulled the trigger, and the chief fell to the bottom of his boat, stunned by the terrible noise. All the natives were stupefied with astonishment and fear. ”

“ 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. ”