now travelling fast from the scene of action, with its diesel engines throbbing at full speed of about 18 knots, half as fast again as the “Nankin” as we rocked gently in our hammocks. There was now a strong blast of cool ventilation air blowing making our quarters less stuffy and smelly, and as I lay alongside Mother in the dark, rocked by the gentle throbbing motion of the ship, in completely strange surroundings, I could quietly reflect on just what an eventful and exciting day it had been from that first moment at 7 o’clock when someone had seen an aeroplane, and how very close we had all been to death and disaster. I personally had survived the cannon fire as it swept through the music room. Then we were all lucky that the shell that hit us was forward on the bow, and not astern igniting all the ammunition we were carrying in a catastrophic explosion, and finally that we had taken to the boats in calm seas and had been rescued by the ship that had attacked us. We were now under enemy control, and we would dearly love to be saved, but we all knew that were we to be involved in a naval action with a British warship, it would be the end, locked up as we were below the waterline, in the most vulnerable part of the ship which if we were to be struck by a torpedo would mean an instantaneous death. I felt it strange that apart from the loneliness and fear of taking to the lifeboats, I had not felt any sense of panic or trauma during the action, but was rather curious in fact with all the excitement as to what would come next, and so with the steady vibrating hum of the diesel engines, I was soon rocked fast asleep.
Next morning at 6 am the loudspeaker system throughout our quarters reverberated to records of German military marches, and then the guard posted outside our quarters with his tommy gun started shouting “Riesen... riesen” repeatedly for us to get up and roll up our hammocks.. For breakfast we were given again black rye bread and jam, but porridge too was available. The beverage was a bitter ersatz coffee and the whole meal was overlooked by the prison officer, a jovial fellow who spoke good English, and joked that we need not worry about any tax inspectors aboard their vessel and the trip also we would be glad to hear was free of charge! Later that morning we were allowed onto the rear part of the upper deck. It was a wonderful feeling and a real joy to step out once again into the bright sunshine, after the dismal dark hold below, and see the ship speeding fast through the deep blue sea with the large white bow waves breaking away from the forehead as we travelled briskly on a south westerly course. The men were only allowed on deck for one hour, whereas us women and children were allowed more than twice as long. The area that we were confined to was marked off by a rope strung across the deck, and was guarded by men with large very long barrelled pistols in holsters on their thighs. One young guard, a particularly stern Nazi type was posted on the companion way ladder leading to the boat deck above. He never blinked an eye and had his tommy gun permanently trained on us in the manner of an automaton. In contrast another pleasant young officer showed us a dog with two puppies that we children were encouraged to play with. On the deck below we could look down onto a sheep and a goat and a few chickens lying on hay that had been captured from the Norwegian ship “Aust”. The prison officer called for four volunteers from the men with a promise of smokes to do a small job. Fodder was required and this was carried in an after hold. Imagine their surprise when they removed the hatchboards to discover that the “hold” was only 3 ft deep and was no deeper than the main deck . It was all part of the raiders disguise to pass herself off as a normal merchant ship. Nearby on the Port side stood a huge wooden cargo container with the word “DURBAN” painted diagonally in large letters across it, which looked inoffensive but behind it nestled a 5.9inch gun. The same set up applied on the Starboard side. The steel deck around the guns was studded to create a non- slip

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