It was the merriest Christmas of our lives. Singing "Yo-ho" and cheered up with many good bottles of rum, we headed south to play our rôle as buccaneers.
XIV
WE CAPTURE THE GLADYS ROYAL AND THE LUNDY ISLAND
"All hands on deck!"
Aloft my boys flew, into the rigging and up the ratlines like monkeys.
"Loose the fore-taups'l!" boomed up from the quarter deck.
"All gone, the fore-taups'l," they sang out. "Loose the ga'nts'ls and stays'ls!"
The sails were sheeted home and were filling out. We didn't lose much time in getting her away. Lying over on her beam ends and running before the wind, we set our course for Madeira.
We knew that just off Gibraltar would be one of our best hunting grounds, so we cleared away the remains of our Norwegian camouflage, and after a few days we were as spick and clean and orderly as a German auxiliary cruiser should be. We were the Irma no longer, but the Seeadler now, although I felt a pang of regret at letting go the name that had served us so well and brought us luck.
There was constant labour on the motor. The lubricating oil we had was of poor quality. Oil, like many other things, had become scarce in Germany. Our enterprise had the enthusiastic support of only a few of the officials at the Admiralty. The others thought it certainly foredoomed to failure, and did not want to risk too much on it. Among these were the heads of the department that supplied us with oil. A sailing vessel under the pressure of sail nearly always lists to one side. The work of the motor was hampered by a leaning position. We sailed most of the time throughout our cruise with the motor dismantled and under repairs.