fter
six o'clock the Assistant Lieutenant went ashore in mufti to telephone
to the nearest port, Frederikshavn, for help. What reply he received we
never heard, but we _did_ hear that he reported he was on a German ship
from Bergen to Kiel and wanted help. Lourenco Marques to Kiel, via
Iceland, would have been nearer the truth!

About eight o'clock we heard from one of the neutrals among the crew
that the Captain of a salvage tug was shortly coming aboard to inquire
into matters. The ladies among us decided to stay in the saloon while
the Captain of the tug interviewed the German Captain in the chartroom
above it. On the arrival of the tug Captain on the bridge, the ladies in
the saloon created a veritable pandemonium, singing, shrieking, and
laughing at the top of their voices. It sounded more like a Christmas
party than one of desperate prisoners in distress. The Danish Captain
departed; what had been the result of his visit we did not know, but at
any rate he knew there were women on board. The German Captain came down
into the saloon, asked pleasantly enough what all the noise was about,
and said, "I have offered the salvage people L5,000 to tow the ship off;
money is nothing to us Germans. This will be done at four to-morrow
morning, and we shall then proceed on our way to Kiel."

Some of us had talked over a plan suggested by the second mate of a
captured ship, by which one of the neutrals among the crew should
contrive to go ashore in one of the tug's boats in the darkness,
communicate with the nearest British Consul, and inform him of the
situation and the desperate case we were in. We promised him L500, to be
raised among the "saloon passengers," if by so doing our rescue should
be accomplished.

We remained in the saloon talking over developments when we heard that a
Danish gunboat had come nearly alongside, and that her Commander was
coming on board. He had presumably received a report from the Captain of
the tug. We heard afterwards that he had his suspicions about the ship,
and had brought with him on board one of his own men to make inquiries
of the crew, among whom were Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes, while he
kept the German Commander busy in the saloon. The previous mistake of
taking the Danish Captain on to the bridge was not to be repeated. The
Commander of the gunboat was to come into the saloon. So the ladies
could not remain there and make their presence known. But some of them
contrived to leave