German prisoner of war
The following story is based upon real life accounts which
appeared in the Scarborough Daily Post in 1920 as part of the
'Sea Dogs' stories by Forrest Frank. This story was told by
Captain John Helm Gibson.
I was bringing 900 German prisoners across, with some 50 of their officers in the number, including one of high rank: but I decided to have no more Germans ie My saloon, and he was promptly refused. Not satisfied with this rebuff, he stopped one of my ships officers and demanded to be supplied with soft white bread and jam and butter, the same as was supplied to the cabin, and lodging also all kinds of complaints about, and objections to, the accomadation provided for him and the officers fo his staff, but still there was "nothing doing" on my part. The ship was pretty well full up with troops and prisoners, and my chief officer went below on to the troop deck to see that the light switches were off. A couple of the Germans addressed him in excellent English and sailor language, saying that they had sailed on British ships, and laughed at their old fault finding commanding officer, who it seems only the night before they had been captured had been lecturing them that the British Army was done. The men told it quite cheerfully as a good joke against their officer. When the prisoners came on board at Havre there was speculation amongst them as to where they were to be taken, and when told Southampton a number of them laughed and shook their heads, saying that couldn't be, because the German Navy held Southampton and used it as a submarine base. They were sent below on leaving Havre, and were not allowed on deck again until we got inside the boomk defences of the Solent, when they were allowed to look their fill on this "German Base." I noticed that when they left their ship their officer of high rank was driven to the prison camp in a beautiful motor car, but the others had to march it.
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• A scarborough man emigrates to Australia
• Log of the German U-Boat which sank eleven Scarborough trawlers in 1916
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