Escape to Russia

Willie Steyn slipped quietly into the waters of Colombo harbour in Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) behind his fellow prisoners.

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It was a dark night with no moon. The watch on board the British ship Catalonia was being changed at 8pm and the searchlight had been switched on. On board, the Boer prisoners were being ushered below deck to be battened down for the night. The sentries were relaxing and talking to the watch about to relieve them. “Quiet on deck there, no talking on deck!” grumbled the chief officer.

At that precise moment, the five Boers drifted away from the ship. So far, luck had been with them. The slow current was taking them towards a large ship.

The Russian troop ship, the Kherson, groaned at her anchor cables in the safe harbour of Colombo. The officer of the watch, Vladimir Petrovich Kissimoff, stared thoughtfully into the dark waters of their anchorage. His thoughts were of home and his family on the shores of the Black Sea in Russia. The Boxer Rebellion in northern China had been quelled and the troops on board the Kherson were eager to return home after the action and bloodshed.

BOBBING HEADS IN THE WATER

Kissimoff’s thoughts were interrupted by a sentry who reported to him that there were five bobbing heads in the water drifting on the tide towards the ship. He hastily climbed down from the bridge and followed the sailor towards amidships. Yes, sure enough, there they were, waving and uttering no sound at all! The ship’s lights cast shadows across the flowing water as he ordered the rope ladder to be lowered. Helping hands brought aboard five drenched but smiling men.

It was quickly established that the swimmers were from the Catalonia and required sanctuary. They were Boer fighters who had been captured at Heuningkoppies, just east of Petrusburg in the Free State, by the British forces.

THEY WERE GREETED EVERYWHERE BY CHEERING AND WAVING FROM THE CITIZENS OF ST PETERSBURG