PART TWO
A PRISONER ON A PASSENGER STEAMER
From New Guinea the Wolf steamed southwest through the Malay archipelago, then between Borneo and Java and Sumatra, thence through the Java sea; and on the night of September 6th the Wolf laid over one hundred mines across the Northwest approach to the entrance of the Singapore harbour.
Going up the Java sea, we were continually sighting vessels, and it was only the barefaced gall of the Wolf that saved her from destruction. 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. I believe that it was the innocent appearance of the Wolf which led to her safety. She ignored all signals (which is characteristic of the merchantman).
The night before the Wolf mined Singapore harbour we had a narrow escape from being discovered. At 11:30 P.M., just as I was dozing off to sleep on my bed on the floor, I heard the call to stations and sprang up to see what it was all about. I looked out-of-doors and saw the two ship's surgeons passing aft, both with their first aid kits strapped to their waists. Slipping to the rail I saw that all four cannon were swung into position, clear for battle, and I could also see that both of the Wolf's torpedo tubes were protruding over the side. Just on the port bow was a small cruiser or battleship. From where I stood I could see her funnels and two masts, also the outline of her hull. She was travelling without lights, the same as we were.
I slipped back into my room, closed the door and switched on the light. I dressed my little girl while my wife got into her clothes. This did not take long as we always slept with our clothes in such a position that we could get into our "emergency outfit" in short order. Every moment while dressing I expected to hear and feel the crash of the Wolf's guns, but fortunately the other fellow didn't see us, and in a few minutes the signal was given to swing the guns in. 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. Personally I was satisfied the way things turned out, as I did not like my chances of getting the family into a boat under the circumstances, neither did I have any wish to be present when the actual firing began. While counting my chances of getting the family safely into the boats, should an engagement ensue, I thought of just how much chance the poor devils down in the hell hole had of being saved. They would have been battened down and probably would have gone down with the vessel, should she have been sunk, without a fighting chance for their lives. Even if the German crew had released them at the last moment, what chance did they have of being saved? Under the most favourable circumstances the Wolf's equipment of life-boats and rafts was probably sufficient for only three hundred and fifty at the outside, and there was a total of about seven hundred on board. It would be only natural for the German crew to have the life-saving equipment themselves and our poor chaps would have been left to drown, there being no articles of an inflammable or floating description around her decks.
On the wall of my room was a typewritten notice over Commander Nerger's signature, stating that in event of the Wolf's engaging an enemy a boat would be lowered and the women, children and medicos would be placed in same, under my charge. This provided that there was sufficient time and the weather conditions favourable. I could imagine just about how many chances we had that there would be sufficient time to execute this manœuvre. However, this sign served the very good purpose of alleviating the women's anxieties to a certain extent. It is quite possible that this was the only reason this notice was given us. However, I am grateful for the part it played. The preceding was the tensest crisis in the Wolf's fifteen months' history. Commander Nerger sent down word to me afterwards that it was a Japanese man-of-war, and to keep the news from my wife if possible.
The next night, September 6th, the Wolf, which was primarily a minelayer and not a raider, laid ninety-eight mines at a distance of from seven and a half to ten miles off shore. The lights of Singapore were plainly visible from the port-hole. On this occasion I was locked in the room for about two hours, but it was not difficult to count the "eggs" as they were being laid, for the mines came up out of No. 3 hatch on an elevator and were conveyed aft to the "chute" on a small rail car which had a flat wheel, and I could hear it going along the deck "humpety-hump, humpety-hump." I estimated that it took about one hour and forty minutes to lay these ninety-eight mines.
From off Singapore we practically retraced our steps back through the Java sea and entered the Indian Ocean on October 9th, passing between the islands of Java and Canor. We then proceeded to the northward and westward until we arrived on the trade route running from Colombo to Delagoa Bay. Here Wolf cruised around slowly for a day or so, crossing and recrossing the route at regular intervals. While lying here waiting for the prey, the wireless man told me he could hear several cruisers working their wireless and that there was one British cruiser patrolling the Straits of Malacca, one at Bombay, two lying in the harbour of Colombo—the Venus and the Vulcan, I believe—and another at a naval station in the Mauritius Islands. All this time the bird, i.e., the Wolf's hydroplane, had been down below in the hole undergoing general repairs from an accident she had had, which nearly ended her activities and drowned both of the operators.