FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>  
he _Wolf_ expected to meet us again before the final separation occurred, when the transference of the officer would have been effected. We heard from the _Wolf_ that she was getting very short of food, and that there was much sickness, including many cases of scurvy, on board. The pigeons must have gone the way of all flesh by this time, and perhaps the dachshunds had too--in the form of German sausages! Some of the prisoners, we knew, had very little clothing, and positively none for cold weather, and our hearts were sore at the thought of so many of our fellow-countrymen, many of whom we had known, in good and ill fortune, being taken into captivity in Germany. The next day we entered the Arctic Circle. The cold was intense, the cabins were icy, the temperature falling as low as 14 deg. F. in some of them. There was no heating apparatus on the ship, with the exception of a couple of small heating pipes in the saloon. These were usually covered with the officers' thick clothes, and some of the passengers' garments drying. The cabin curtains froze to the ports; all the cabin roofs leaked, and it was impossible to keep the floors and bedding dry; and in our cabin, in addition, we had water constantly flowing and swishing backwards and forwards between the iron deck of the ship and the wooden floor of the cabin. This oozed up through the floor and accumulated under the settee, and on many nights we emptied five or six buckets full of icy water from under the settee, which had also to be used as a bed. At last I persuaded the Captain to allow one of the sailors to drill a hole in the side of the cabin so that the water could have an outlet on to the deck. I had asked that this might be done directly the water appeared in our cabin, but was told it was _against the regulations of the Board of Trade_! Quoting the Board of Trade under such conditions--was this a sample of German humour? We managed to secure a piece of matting for our cabin floor--it was soaked through every day, but we had it dried daily in the engine-room. Since the great storm on the Kaiser's birthday our feet had never been dry or warm, and were in this condition till some hours after we got ashore. The ports of the cabins had all long ago been painted black in order that no light might show through, and the darkness at night, especially in these stormy seas, was always very sinister and ugly, not to say dangerous--not a spark of light showing on deck
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>  



Top keywords:

German

 

heating

 

cabins

 
settee
 
outlet
 

sailors

 
accumulated
 

nights

 

emptied

 

forwards


wooden
 

persuaded

 

Captain

 

buckets

 

humour

 
painted
 

ashore

 

condition

 

darkness

 
dangerous

showing

 
sinister
 

stormy

 

sample

 

conditions

 

backwards

 

managed

 
secure
 

Quoting

 

appeared


directly

 

regulations

 

matting

 

Kaiser

 

birthday

 

soaked

 

engine

 

dachshunds

 

pigeons

 

sausages


weather

 

hearts

 

thought

 

positively

 

clothing

 

prisoners

 
scurvy
 

separation

 

occurred

 

transference