A SKIPPER'S TALE 



meals, which we ate in the corridor outside the cells. 

 If we wanted to get out for a wash or anything we 

 had to ask leave of the sentries. 



" At the end of those four days we had a cruel 

 disappointment. We were only fishermen, who had 

 been captured by German warships and made priso- 

 ners. We had nothing whatever to do with the war 

 or fighting — many of the poor chaps had lost every- 

 thing they had in the world — and we did not see 

 how we could be kept in Germain- . We fancied we 

 should be sent home, and, as a matter of fact, we 

 were told that we were going to be sent back. Our 

 very souls sank when the cruel tidings came that, 

 instead of going home, we were to be sent to Senne- 

 lager as prisoners of war ; and to Scnnelager we 

 were taken. 



" Things had been bad enough at Wilhelm- 

 shaven, in the dark holes of the lock-up, but they 

 were nothing compared with what we had to go 

 through at Sennelager. As soon as we got there 

 we were thrown into the fields, and for three weeks 

 we slept on the grass or the bare ground, for in 

 some places there was no grass. We had no cover- 

 ing, nothing whatever. 



" It was during the daytime that we lay on the 

 ground and slept, because then it was warm and 

 dry, with the sun out, and at night, when there 

 were heavy dews, we walked about and tried to keep 

 warm. 



" At the end of the three weeks the rainy season 

 came on, and we got tufts of grass and built little 



86 



K 



