As pleasure traffic to Germany was still non-existent, it was the only means by which the ships were enabled to pay their way at all. Towards evening it became even rougher, and two odious little boys, who had formerly stalked about the ship calling one another ‘old chap’, were now conspicuous by their absence – or rather by the noises that emerged from their cabin, which adjoined the smoking-room.

At length, land was sighted on the right. This was followed by Heligoland on the left. Then it grew dark and we went to bed. Gradually we passed Cuxhaven and entered the mouth of the Elbe, and lights shone out from either shore. I must confess to a childish excitement when arriving anywhere by ship, and was perpetually poking my head out of the porthole at the sound of a whistle or the flash of a signal lamp. Naturally, therefore, just as it was becoming light, I fell asleep and did not awaken till we were moored fast to the quay at Hamburg.

The scene was one of tremendous activity. All around towered vast warehouses in the German manner, great expanses of blank brick, surmounted by stretch upon stretch of shining roofs in irregular triangles, like the settings of a modern film. In the air was the tang of salt water and that clear, fresh smell of towns on early summer mornings that is quite distinct from the proverbial freshness of the country dawn. Great long timber barges, with squat black, shingled roofs, were hurried past by tiny little tugs. On the quay, stalwart dockers were busy manoeuvring enormous packing-cases, rained on them by innumerable cranes. Motor-boats, containing pilots and harbour police, were flying in all directions. And in the distance, red, black, and white, loomed the funnels of the great liners, softened through a faint haze of smoke.

By eight o’clock, save for us and a swarm of German stevedores and officials, the Accrington was empty. German bureaucracy had risen to the occasion of Diana’s arrival. Each official spoke perfect English and displayed a paternal kindness, which contrasted strongly with the disobligingness that usually distinguishes the ports of France. A benign figure in uniform, facially the image of the Kaiser, busied himself with our passports as soon as we had bathed; while a living replica of the Crown Prince, bearing his lunch in a crocodile bag, had been deputed by the RAC to attend to the car. After many unpleasant moments, and a reformation of the whole dock in order that ship and crane might meet, Diana was landed uninjured on dry land. We bade the steward goodbye, and accompanied by the Crown Prince and the Kaiser, marched on shore. The latter, radiating good-fellowship, guided us by the arm and made little jokes.

‘You will now ’ave to drrive to the rright. This is no longerr England. Ha, ha, ha. He, he, he!’

We all piled on the car and motored round the corner to a customs yard. There we remained for three hours.

We were now in the midst of the warehouses. Cliffs of unrelieved brick hemmed us in on every side, till the sky was scarcely visible. Incident was forthcoming in the cruelties of the waggon-drivers, one of whom, finding his horses unable to get a huge load of barrels started, beat them so unmercifully that they fell to the ground in a sheet of flame caused by the contact of hoof and paving-stone. Naturally our British blood boiled, and in company with other drivers, we ran to the rescue. The unfortunate animals, however, seemed better able to rise to their feet unaided. At the same time, nowhere in England could one have found cart-horses so well tended or in such good condition.

Meanwhile David was arguing his way from one official to another, deeper and deeper into the warehouses, over the subject of paying a deposit on legitimate spare parts. After an interminable time, a compromise was arrived at, though even this was expensive enough. It was nearly one o’clock by the time we had driven into the more fashionable quarter, where, after filling up with petrol, we had lunch at an hotel on the front of one of the large lakes round which the town is built.