At heart every sailor is a child, and he has a child's love of Christmas. And how he enjoys a Christmas present! He turns it around in his hands, and says:
"By Joe, it's good to have Christmas."
And surely the present that came to us was the finest that any sailor ever had.
As suddenly as it had come, the south wind died down and a breeze sprang up in the north. Our frozen ship creaked, laid over, and came around with the new wind, and our hearts sang for joy. Each day we seemed to thaw out a bit more. Soon we passed to the east of Iceland and reëntered the Atlantic. Axes and picks were busy chipping away the ice. It was hard work, but who cared now that we were getting warm again? We were through the blockade and out of the Arctic—and now to test the "Freedom of the Seas" and give the Allies a touch of high life.
"By Joe," I said to my boys, "and they call it a blockade!"
You would have thought the fellow in the lookout was answering me.
"Steamer ahoy," he sang out.
What? A steamer in these parts?
I climbed aloft with my glasses. Sure enough, there was a British armoured cruiser steaming toward us at full speed. She had the signal flying:
"Stand by or we fire!"