At the
commencement of the voyage I was chief officer. The ship left port at
Port Arthur on the 10th day of April, 1915, about 4 P.M., laden with a
tank cargo of gasoline and wooden barrels of lubricating oil. The voyage
was uneventful.
When about half way across the Atlantic the wireless operator told me
there was a British cruiser in our vicinity and that he had heard
messages from this ship the whole time since leaving Port Arthur, but
she made no direct communication with or to our ship. From the sound of
the wireless messages given out by the British ship, she seemed to
maintain the same distance from us until about three days before we
reached the mouth of the English Channel.
On the first day of May, about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, we spoke two
British patrol vessels named Iago and Filey. We were then about
twenty-two miles west of the Bishop Lighthouse. The patrol vessels asked
where we were bound. After informing them we were bound for Rouen, they
ordered us to follow them to the Bishop. The Filey took up a position a
half mile distant on our port bow, the Iago off our starboard quarter
close to us.
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