posted in some of our cabins saying that in that event the women with
their husbands, and some other prisoners, would be put into boats with a
white flag, "if weather and other conditions permitted." We often
wondered whether they _would_ permit! The other prisoners, however,
viz. those under the poop and on the 'tween decks, would have had no
chance of being saved. They would all have been battened down under
hatches (this, indeed, was done whenever the _Wolf_ sighted or captured
a ship, when mines were being sown, and when gun and other drill was
carried on) and armed guards with hand grenades sent among them. It made
us furious to see, as we did many times, our friends being driven below
by armed guards. Their fate, if the _Wolf_ had gone into action, would
have been too terrible to contemplate. For the lifeboats on the _Wolf_
could not possibly have accommodated more than 350 souls, and it is
certain no prisoners would have been among this number.

The Captain and officers of the _Wolf_ must have had some very anxious
moments on many occasions. When passing close to other ships, as she had
done in the comparatively narrow waters of the Java Sea, all the
prisoners were sent below, and we were told that the few officers and
crew visible to a passing ship discarded their naval uniform and
appeared in kit suitable for the officers and crew of a tramp. We also
heard that on one occasion in narrow waters in the Far East the _Wolf_
passed quite close to a Japanese cruiser at night. Both ships were in
darkness, every man on the _Wolf_ was at his station, and at the
slightest sign from the cruiser the _Wolf's_ guns and torpedoes would
have immediately come into action. But the _Wolf's_ good luck did not
desert her, and the Japanese cruiser passed away into the night without
having given any sign that she had seen the raider.

The _Wolf_, with a company of over seven hundred on board, sailed away