More and more satisfactory tidings came from on board our capture. The ship was laden with a precious cargo, which would compensate us amply for the risk we had run in attacking a vessel provided with wireless. Specially welcome was the news that the Appam was carrying a million marks in gold. Without losing a minute we transported this treasure to the hold of the Moewe. It was comparatively light booty—eighteen cases in all; sixteen cases of them contained fourteen bars of gold apiece, and two gold-dust.
So far everything had gone splendidly. What, however, was to be done with the four English officers, twenty sailors and marines, and the hundred and sixty passengers on board the Appam? To transfer them to the Moewe was out of the question, every available corner being occupied.
After some deliberation, I dispatched Reserve Officer Berg, with a prize-crew of twenty men, to the Appam. The released Germans were told to consider him as the master of the ship and on every occasion to back him up. That being settled, we hurriedly departed, for the Moewe still feared the possible consequences of that interrupted wireless message of the Appam.
Our next act was to ascertain what provisions the Appam had on board, for my intention was to send our captive into some port only after a considerable time, for with our parting from her the secret of our existence would naturally come to light.
At nightfall we stopped the ship, and I summoned the captain, officers, and crew of the Appam, also the four officers and sailors belonging to the British Navy. By all laws and rights they were prisoners of war, and had to join their friends below.
VII—STORY OF THE COLONIAL PRISONERS
The passengers of the Appam, our officers told me, were literally trembling for their lives. I decided, therefore, to have an interview with the two most representative passengers, the Governors of the English colonies of Sierra Leone and Nigeria—Sir Edward Merewether and Mr. James. These two gentlemen, on being conducted to my cabin, had the situation fully explained to them. Fortunately for them, the German Colonials on board the Appam had already informed me that both these men, in striking contrast to the usual English official, were not rabid German-haters, and had in the prosecution of their official duties treated Germans comparatively well.
I consequently informed them that, in spite of their official capacity, I had no intention of detaining them as prisoners on the Moewe. (The fact that, had I done so, they would have been very much in our way, I, of course, kept to myself.) I clearly saw that both these gentlemen of high standing had expected a very different fate, for their expression brightened at my words. They passed a night on the Moewe and were conducted back to the Appam the following morning, after breakfast, with instructions to tell their fellow-passengers that the Appam would eventually be brought into a certain port under German command. Every passenger could keep his belongings, but every eligible man had to sign an undertaking not to bear arms in this war against Germany or her allies. So long as the orders of the German officer in charge were obeyed, everyone would be well treated, and everything would be done to ensure the safety of the ship. At the slightest sign of opposition or insubordination, however, the vessel would be blown up.