Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 297
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[Page 297]
enemy cruisers they are not desirable billets. They are big, and from the naval point of view slow; they are mostly armed with the scrappings of paid off warships, and can neither fight a cruiser nor run away. They make huge targets, having plenty of freeboards, and would be easily set on fire. It was for this reason that we were anxious to meet the German armed merchantmen: we could have lain off and chewed them at our leisure. At any rate we in the Sydney praised the Prophet that the fates had put us in a respectable ship. The only use we had for the armed merchantmen was the unlimited grub they carried, for when we had one in company we were always sure of plenty of fresh food.
On the 26th February orders came to proceed south to Abrolhos Rocks to join the flag, so the Sydney gathered her colliers about her and with the Edinburgh Castle pushed off from Lavandeira. The four ships proceeded in line abreast, each ship just out of sight of its neighbour, the colliers being on either flank and thrown well out as bait. In this way a wide expanse of ocean was covered, and the colliers had orders to shout on their wireless and close in if they sighted anything suspicious. On the trip down we saw many ships and chased many smoke trails. Quite often it happened that we altered course and hurried after something whose masts just showed over the horizon, only to find the suspicious ship to be one of our own colliers which in some miraculous fashion were always getting out of position. One night we chased a ship for miles and bailed her up by firing across her bows. It was about eleven o'clock, and