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liberty remained with me. For the second time in my life I was going to don a captor's chain. "God grant me Grace and Strength to meet whatsoever lies ahead." Suddenly the launch swung around in a wide circle and headed directly for our vessel. At the same time it opened full throttle. The marines hanging to the launch sides were tensely poised ready to board us. Our vessel was unarmed and would not present any difficulty militarily. As the launch drew nearer the thought presented itself: "Set your ship on fire. Don't let them have her. Commit 'suttee' on a grand scale. She will burn like cellulose - a light built boat of combustible materials -burn a thousand souls in a gruesome death." No, - not that. "Thou shalt not kill." I had no right to send a thousand people to a cruel and hasty death. "Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord. After all were not the Japanese committing national suicide in this latest outrage? It was a final act of madness in their failure to overthrow the Chinese and subdue them. I went to meet the boarding party and stop any possible incidents. Our Indian anti-piracy guard of six sikhs immediately threw a cordon around me. They were willing to give their lives, if necessary, to save me. I motioned them aside and told them not to interfere with the Japanese. The boarding party was led by a naval Reserve Officer, a former Nippon Yusan Kaisha captain of a merchantman. This fact was to me direct evidence of God's presence near me. The enemy sent to imprison me was a fellow seaman and not the professional military man with his provincial and narrow outlook. The capture and handing over ceremony would be much easier with less friction with a "sailor" in charge. The executive office of the Japanese boarding party and I went to the first class saloon for the ceremony. He presented me with a poorly typewritten statement that the Japanese Navy was taking our vessel into custody. There was no mention that a state of war existed between His Majesty's Government and the Imperial Japanese Government. There was no rudeness from the Japanese Commander, and I could see he felt unhappy about the whole proceeding. In the document I was handed, "the mailed fist of military
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