murderer making sure that the struggles of his victim had finally
ceased, moved away from the scene of her latest crime. Never shall we
forget the tragedy of that last half-hour in the life of the _Hitachi
Maru_.

Thus came to an end the second of the Nippon Yushen Kaisha fleet bearing
the name of _Hitachi Maru_. The original ship of that name had been sunk
by the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War. Our ill-fated vessel had
taken her place. It will savour of tempting Providence if another ship
ever bears her unfortunate name, and no sailor could be blamed for
refusing to sail in her.




CHAPTER V

LIFE ON THE "WOLF"


Life on the _Wolf_ was very different from life on the _Hitachi_. To
begin with, all the single men of military age from the _Hitachi_ were
accommodated on the 'tween decks, and slept in hammocks which they had
to sling themselves. The elder men among them slept in bunks taken from
the _Hitachi_, but the quarters of all in the 'tween decks were very
restricted; there was no privacy, no convenience, and only a screen
divided the European and Japanese quarters. The condition of our
fellow-countrymen from the _Hitachi_ was now the reverse of enviable,
though it was a great deal better than that of the crews of the captured
ships, who were "accommodated" under the poop--where the Captains and