7/4/1939 Baltic Sea, Kriegstagebuch Nr.2, 3rd day at sea
On leaving Kiel Schiff 35 encountered heavy seas and high winds. Hartmann needed calm weather to carry out the conversion so he proceed further East and finally on the evening of July 3rd calm seas were found and no time was wasted in getting out the scaffolding and paint brushes the funnel remained black only a red band and 2 hammer and sickles were added and a thick black band was painted around the bridge. Signs in Russian and English were made up for the propellers they read “Ware of our propellers” these were mounted astern one on each side. At 21:36 the Soviet flag was hoisted on the mainmast and Schiff 35 now the KOSTROMA out of Murmansk headed East in hopes of meeting a real Soviet ship to test his disguise, Today at 09:28 in naval square AO 6113 lookouts sighted a Soviet tanker closing to 1.700m it is the VLAD MOLOTOV 4,800 grt from Leningrad to Aberdeen both ships exchanged friendly greetings and soon parted ways. Satisfied that the disguise will hold Hartmann steers west and Schiff 35 will make for the Great Belt.
