. We had to sit in these
cold and dark cabins during the day. The weather prevented us from being
on deck, which was often covered with frost and snow, and often there
was nowhere else to sit. The electric light was on for only a limited
time each day, so, as the ports could not be opened, it being far too
cold, we asked and obtained permission to scratch a little of the paint
off the ports in our cabin. This made things a little more bearable, but
it can easily be imagined how people who had been living in tropical
climates for many years fared under such conditions. As for our own
case, my wife had spent only two winters out of Siam during the last
twenty years, while I had spent none during the last twenty-one, and it
is no exaggeration to say that we suffered agonies with the cold. It was
nothing short of cruel to expose women and children to this after they
had been dragged in captivity over the seas for many months. The Captain
had ordered a part of the bunkers to be cleared, so that the prisoners
might sit there in the cold weather. But the place was so dirty and
uncomfortable, and difficult of access, in addition to it being in
darkness, and quite unprovided with seats, that most of the prisoners
preferred the crowded little saloon. Luchs was provided with a swanky
kennel for the cold weather. The Spanish carpenter contrived it, and it
looked like a small model of a Norwegian church--painted the Allied
grey! Even the Captain's dog was more comfortable than we were!

On the morning of February 7th we for the first time encountered
icefloes, when attempting the northern passage between Greenland and
Iceland. About 11 a.m. we stopped and hooted for the _Wolf_, as a fog
had come on--the first time we had heard a steamer's siren since the day
of our capture. We waited for some hours in the ice, but no answering
signal came, so the Captain decided to turn back, as he thought it
impossible to force his way through the ice. We therefore went back
again on our course, the Captain hoping that the wind would change and
cease blowing the icefloes from off the shores of Greenland.

That morning is unforgettable. The cold fog, the great bergs of ice
floating by the ship and sometimes crashing into her, the dreary sea,
the cold, filthy, miserable ship, our hopeless condition, all helped to
lower our spirits, and we felt we had plumbed the very depths of misery.

After a day or two slow steaming on this course and occasional s