We were now heading north through the Java Sea, and passing through innumerable islands through the Gaspar Straits into the South China Sea. The weather was still very calm with flat seas and just the heavy Pacific swell rolling the vessel gently too and fro from side to side with the horizon constantly moving up and down. It was all most exotic as some days one would not see any land, then out of the distance a hazy outline could be seen and then soon we were passing quite close to palm fringed small tropical islands and I would imagine Robert Louis Stevenson and the Treasure Island Pirates amongst them somewhere. Then another spectacle would be the sudden afternoon tropical storms that would suddenly blow up. Huge threatening inky black clouds would loom, and often there would be the usual passing tropical downpour. But at other times a far more spectacular sight would take place, when a long pencil shaped water spout or tornado would slowly stretch down from the cloud , just touching into the sea. If it was fairly close at hand, one could see the swirling water being sucked up in the spiral like a continuous live corkscrew. It was an awesome and wonderful sight, but it must be terrifying to meet one of those twisters in a small boat. About a couple of days after passing through the Straits there was a grand ceremony amongst the crew for “Crossing the Line” from South to North. All members of the German crew who had not crossed the Equator from this direction before, now had to submit to appropriate measures under the order of King Neptune. A large inflatable was placed on deck and filled with sea water. In front were all the henchmen such as the barber with a two foot wooden cut throat razor, another with a deck swab to apply thick foaming lather, three men covered in grease to manhandle the victim and then chuck him in the water. King Neptune climbed up over the side on a Jacob’s ladder wearing a yellow string wig and carrying a trident, and gave orders for each novice to be lathered, shaved and washed and then be given some foul potion to drink.. Everyone laughed and had a good time, drank some beer and it all broke the monotony of the voyage with the never ending blue seas, heavy swell and the ever distant rocking horizon! On the 23rd June, just over three weeks after leaving the Regensburg , I came out in the early morning onto the deck to be met by a thick sea fog enveloping us. The ship had slowed right down, and all around were Japanese fishermen in small dory type boats throwing out baited hand lines, and as fast as they threw them in, they were hauling them again loaded with fish. Slowly the mist lifted and one could see more and more of them around us. About an hour later it got warmer, the sea mist started to clear quicker, and we were then in bright sunshine and the sky suddenly became cloudless and the sea deep blue. Then suddenly as though curtains had suddenly been drawn back I looked ahead and there in the sky suspended above us , was the massive snow capped peak of Mount Fujiyama 12,300 ft. Its base was in a blue blur of haze that blended into the background, but its snow capped peak for half its height glistened and sparkled like a huge white crystal in the brilliant morning sunshine, as though it were a detached body just hanging there in the sapphire blue sky above the equally calm blue ocean. Viewing Mount Fuji from the sea on that day, was one of the most stunning and unforgettable sights of my life. It was of such beauty that having seen it under those conditions, one could only then really appreciate what an effect such a sight must have had on the Japanese psyche over the long centuries since the dawn of time. At 1.00 pm we dropped anchor at a small port and seaplane base about 25 miles south of Yokohama. The German major , “Little Willy”, was met by a launch and was sped ashore, obviously in a hurry to get to his embassy. In the air there was tremendous activity from an aerodrome close by, with all sorts of small planes taking off and

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