Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 145
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[Page 145]
However now the blockade is a very different thing from what it was in 1915 and we believed that the Central powers receive no more material from abroad than they should.
One American skipper held up was very wrathful. He was inward bound for New York and when we signalled him he increased speed and tried to get away. The oil fuel was turned on and the Sydney leapt from twelve knots to sixteen in a few minutes & soon was doing eighteen. Still the Yankee dug out for home but a shot across his bows which landed a little nearer than we intended settled the argument and he hove to.
He was boarded and searched and allowed to proceed but we had held him up sufficiently long to make him lie off the port till morning as it was than too late to make N.Y. harbour within the specified hours.
One felt sorry for the poor chap. He had brought a perfectly innocent cargo from Sweden and had been collared by one of our ships off the Orkneys and taken into Kirkwell and kept for four days. His ship was searched