With a prize crew on board, which would have been dealt with according to plan, we might have gained the high seas during the night; but with an escort of armed fast steamers this was out of the question. Even in thick fog and the darkness of night it is very doubtful if we could have broken away from our escort.
Now, as in the case of all the other signals, I answered first with, 'Don't understand,' for my only aim now was to gain time and try to get them to put a prize crew on board. In that case an escort would have been unnecessary. The cruiser really made every effort to make his signal intelligible.
But the more trouble he took the less understanding we showed. We seemed to have lost every shred of intelligence on board the Aud. In justice to them, I must confess that the crew of the Bluebell did their best to help us; they tugged like mad at the signal halliards, and altered course over and over again, in order to let their flags blow out in the wind. But all in vain! Nothing could make us understand what they wanted!
The English did not appear to notice that we were fooling them, for (greatly daring) they came so close to us that the most shortsighted could have read the message. But I only shook my head, held the signal-book aloft, and pointed to it with my finger, to indicate that this signal was not given in our book. Then the Bluebell plucked up courage and approached very, very carefully to within fifty yards of us.
While this ridiculous exchange of signals was going on it had gradually become dark, so that it really was difficult now to read the signals. The Bluebell noticed this, for we now saw a man with a huge megaphone preparing to shout something to us from the bridge. In order to forestall him, I shouted, 'Shall I let down a ladder for your prize crew?' Instead of answering my question, the Bluebell sheered off about forty yards from us, and her officers showed us by all sorts of pantomime that they had no intention of sending a boat. My very friendly invitation had failed.
If we had only known what a mysterious ship we were supposed to be, the armament and U-boat escort that we were credited with, many things would have been more intelligible to us. As I read to-day the English papers of those days, I come upon the most incredible reports in regard to our little Aud. 'The Mystery Ship,' 'The Flying Dutchman,' and other scare headlines followed by the most fantastic accounts prove what excitement the Aud caused in England, and, above all, among the vessels of the coast-patrol.
The other cruisers had meanwhile formed a ring round us. On some the guns were manned and ready to fire at us. At the slightest hostile move on our part we should have been riddled like a sieve. Aboard the Bluebell a diminutive lieutenant was now enthroned on the signalling bridge, armed with a gigantic megaphone through which he continued to shout, 'Fol-low-me-to-Quee-ee-eenstown.—South—sixty-three—east!' This was repeated time after time, but always with the same negative result.
This farce might have gone on all night, and I was beginning to get tired of it. And the English captain also appeared to be losing patience, for I saw him sign to the speaker to come down. Then we heard a few curt orders. The cruiser passed us on the port side. The next moment there was a flash, and a shell from the Bluebell's forward gun burst in front of our bows. As we were directly in his line of fire we were all stupefied for a moment by the violence of the concussion.
In plain English this meant, 'The farce is finished. Curtain!' As we were not very anxious for any more shells (the next would most certainly go, not across our bow, but into it), I shouted loud enough for the English to hear, 'Full speed ahead, south, 63 east.' At the same time I sent a message to the chief-engineer that I would hang him from the yardarm if this 'full speed' rose above five knots.