ABSTRACT
Kapitan Fred Krage was a blockade runner, and had commanded the first ship to break out of hibernation in Japan and make a run for it to France. Captain Krage had discharged his German crew in Shanghai and hired a nearly-all-Chinese-crew in the summer of 1939, then drydocked the ship in Hong Kong and began loading for Europe. After a close encounter with a two-funnelled passenger ship, not identified, Captain Krage received orders to rendezvous with the tanker Uckermark, disguised as the Dixie. Captain Krage enlisted the willing support of a prisoner, the French Captain Jego and a civilian M. Paul Vois to help identify the low profile of the land at the entrance to the Gironde River. Both were intimately familiar with the approaches, and the entry was made safely, despite the fact that after the ship arrived Captain Krage was told he had steamed right through a newly-laid minefield.
