A DARING ESCAPE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XL, Issue 11437, 30 November 1915, Page 4

A DARING ESCAPE.

BALTIC COAST TO DENMARK. BRITISH PRISONER’S CRUISE. A nameless Englishman, according to the Berliner Tageblatt, recently broke war prison in Germany and successfully voyaged to a haven of refuge in Denmark; independently and from an aquatic and sporting aspect, the performance of the fugitive, as recorded in the columns of. the newspaper of the country that so lately held him captive, is one to arouse interest and sympathy, with congratulations for the success of a bold and adventurous coup. The anonymous prisoner seems to have been incarcerated at Doberitz up to September 3rd. This prison is practically suburban to Berlin. How the prisoner escaped from his cage does not appear, hut his foemau’s own report traces him to Murow, an obscure village on the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg, not very far distant from Warnemnnde, the port from which ferry steamers ply to and from Gjodser. a town at the southern end of a spit of land on the Danish island of Laalaiid. The ferry distance is.about 28 miles, slightly in excess of the distance of our Dover Straits crossing, and we may assume that the crossing frpm the obscure neighbouring Murow, which seems to be too insignificant to be worth} 7 of delineation upon ordinary maps, would be approximately the same distance. s.Murow is nearly 125 miles north-east of Berlin as the crow flies, and the ex-captive seems to have manoeuvred this amount of land travel with success; but the Tageblatt does not record any details of his Pilgrim’s Progress across hostile soil. He wisely kept clear of the more populous Warnemnnde, where, as a traveller seeking shipment, he might have been exposed to unpleasant inquisition. OLNY A COCKLE SHELL. He hit upon Murow, and there got hold of a Baltic skiff, a small fisherman’s rowing boat, such as would bo used by longshoremen, probably a “pram,” and, not unlike the Northumbrian coble, that has a bold,, bluff bow for facing a swell, but has a slender and shallow counter and stern, which makes her unlit to run before anything like a sea, and which requires her to he beached stern foremost and bows to surf when landing in heavy weather. Whether our countryman ventured to requisition this boat without undue formality, or whether some compassionate and confiding shoreman lent it to him, does not appear; but we note that eventually the boat has been returned to Warnemnnde, where we presume it will finally find its legitimate owner. In this cockle shell the adventurer started to row to Gjedsex - . He seems to have got safely over about half of his journey when he was sighted by the Danish ferry boat, the “skipper” of which steered off to him, and took him and his boat safe to their haven. According to the tale that he told he seems to have planned to reach Copenhagen, and thence to hxs native land.