"Yes; I threw them overboard. I'll tell you why. It was not for me, Captain Rose, but for the women and little children. I am not afraid of you. You can shoot me if you want to, but you can't drown the little children."
Rose confined him to his room, and the next time the Igotz Mendi met the Wolf, Commander Nerger sentenced him to three years in a German military prison.
Coaling having finished, the vessels proceeded north in company. During the first week of January the Wolf sank the Norwegian bark Storkbror, on the ground that the vessel had been British-owned before the war. This was the Wolf's last prize. The last time the two raiders were together was on Feb. 6, when the Wolf was supplied with coal and other requirements from the Igotz Mendi. Thereafter, each pursued her own course to Germany.
RAIDER MEETS DISASTER
About Feb. 7 the Igotz Mendi crossed the Arctic Circle, and, encountering much ice, was forced back. Two attempts were made at the Northern Passage, but as the ship was bumping badly against the ice floes a course was shaped between Iceland and the Faroes for the Norwegian coast. On the night of the 18th a wireless from Berlin announced that the Wolf had arrived safely. At 3:30 P. M. on Feb. 24 the Igotz Mendi ran aground near the Skaw, having mistaken the lighthouse for the lightship in the foggy weather. Three hours later a boat came off from the shore. The Igotz Mendi was boarded at 8 o'clock by the commander of a Danish gunboat, who discovered the true character of the ship, which the Germans were endeavoring to conceal.
Next day twenty-two persons, including nine women, two children, and two Americans, were landed in lifeboats and were cared for by the British Consul. Many of them had suffered from inadequate nourishment in the last five weeks. There had been an epidemic of beri-beri and scurvy on board the vessel.
The Danish authorities interned the German commander of the Igotz Mendi. The German prize crew refused to leave the ship.
The Berlin authorities on Feb. 25, 1918, issued an official announcement containing these statements:
The auxiliary cruiser Wolf has returned home after fifteen months in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The Kaiser has telegraphed his welcome to the commander and conferred the Order Pour le Mérite, together with a number of iron crosses, on the officers and crew. The Wolf was commanded by Frigate Captain Nerger and inflicted the greatest damage on the enemy's shipping by the destruction of cargo space and cargo. She brought home more than four hundred members of crews of sunken ships of various nationalities, especially numerous colored and white British soldiers, besides several guns captured from armed steamers and great quantities of valuable raw materials, including rubber, copper, brass, zinc, cocoa beans, copra, &c., to the value of many million marks.