Notes

In November, 1940, a year after World War II began two german raiders and a supply ship were hunting British merchant shipping in the South Pacific. The tiny coastal freighter Holmwood had just left the Chatham Islands for Lyttelton with a cargo of sheep when she was stopped and boarded by a heavily armed party. The crew and passengers, among them five children, were forced to transfer to the raider Komet. The Holmwood was then sunk by gunfire and the German ships moved north with their captives... north to what? This story is told from the point of view of 11 year old Te Miria Idiens, who was a passenger aboard the Holmwood on that disastrous final voyage. The book is based on recollections of her family (her mother kept a diary) and of the crew, survivors of the ordeal.