316 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



had lain there ever since the beginning of the war, 

 when their crews were called aw^ay for military service. 

 Although they flew the German flag, they carried 

 cargoes consigned to English firms in Hull and Sunder- 

 land. 



As soon as possible, we went ashore, and, oddly 

 enough, in all our travels we never came nearer a ducking 

 than on this occasion, for the mate, being in a hurry to 

 go ashore, forgot to plug up the boat. Before we had 

 gone a hundred yards, our feet were awash, and after 

 having successfully weathered the Yenesei shoals, and 

 the ice and storms of the Arctic Ocean, we had to bale 

 for dear life, and row too, in order to escape foundering 

 ignominiously in Tromsoe Harbour. 



At Tromsoe, the Ragna changed her destination, 

 for owing to the dangerous state of the North Sea, her 

 owners would not take the risk of bringing her over to 

 Aberdeen, as at first they intended. Therefore Miss 

 Curtis and I had to cross over to England by another 

 route, and we arranged to leave two days later for 

 Bergen. Afterwards we walked about the town, until, 

 at the hotel, we found a great prize — a copy of the 

 Times only ten days old ! No newspaper was ever 

 devoured more thoroughly than that one. From it we 

 learned of a threatened attack upon Antwerp, of the 

 sack of Louvain, and of the bombardment of Eheims. 

 But it all seemed so vague and so far away — we, fresh 

 from places where the change of the weather and the 

 catch of fish were the events of importance, could not 

 realise it at all. 



Early in the morning of 3rd October we were 



