Chapter I: Introduction

Captain John Stanley Cameron, master of the American bark _Beluga_, who tells the story of his great adventure on board the German raider _Wolf_, and subsequently on the prize ship _Igotz Mendi_, in this volume, is of Scotch parentage, thirty-four years old; a smooth-shaven, canny graduate of the "before the mast" school, and prematurely gray. His father is a well-known figure on the Pacific Coast, being the oldest sailing master living in his part of the world.

Captain Cameron went to sea at the age of three. At thirteen he was earning his living as an able-bodied seaman, and he has been a master of sailing vessels since he was twenty-one. He figured in the news some few years ago by taking a sailing yacht of seventy-four tons from New York to San Francisco; the smallest vessel of her class to beat through the Straits of Magellan. Since then, Captain Cameron has retired from sea--until his last trip as master of the _Beluga_.

In setting down Captain Cameron's story much as it came from his own lips, I have treated it as a simple record of human experience, avoiding any chance of spoiling this bully sea yarn by attempting to give it a literary finish.

CYRIL BROWN.

ILLUSTRATIONS

CAPTAIN CAMERON AND HIS DAUGHTER NITA _Frontispiece_

PAGE

THE GERMAN AUXILIARY CRUISER _Wolf_ 22

SHOWING "MANNLICHER" TYPE TORPEDO TUBE 48

FINAL DIVE OF JAPANESE STEAMER _Hitachi Maru_ 48

SHOWING 4.7 "ORDINARY" PORTSIDE GUN 68

BURIAL OF A. JOHNSON, SECOND OFFICER
ON AMERICAN BARK _Beluga_ 114

LAST OF THE AMERICAN BARK _William Kirby_ 130

AMERICAN SCHOONER _Winslow_ 148

THE BLOWING UP OF AMERICAN SCHOONER _Winslow_ 148

_Igotz Mendi_ ASHORE ON THE DANISH COAST 162

LIFE-BOAT LEAVING BEACH FOR THE
STRANDED _Igotz Mendi_ 162

PART ONE: CAPTURED BY PIRATES

TEN MONTHS IN A GERMAN
RAIDER