Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 191
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[Page 191]
Jamaica always meant a mail and home news in those days and our kind friend the Naval agent Captain Forwood affectionately known to us as "Uncle" always saw to it that our bags were waiting on the wharf when we arrived.
On this occasion however we lay out in the stream which was uncomfortable but necessary. When we propped up a jetty some of our hardy souls forard had a habit of arraying themselves in plain clothes and passing themselves quietly over the side on to the jetty and beating it to the Hills for a few days holiday. This became so frequent and so difficult to stop that for a change we hitched up to a buoy in the Harbour.
In a way one sympathised with leave breakers and others who showed an inclination to make for the beach and get clean away as there was not much legitimate amusement for the men in any of the islands we visited.
The town of Jamaica is as I have said before populated mainly by coloured people with whom our bluejackets had little in common. The Officers had the Club and the entree into the houses of the officials and other prominent people and so continued to find enough to do but the men had only the native bars which in most cases were but the porticos of something else.
Although one has written flippantly perhaps of Yachting trips and Banzai Cruises yet these same entailed really heavy work on the part of those on whom the efficiency of the ship depended. Except for a short spell in Bermuda and Gibraltar which in the case of the lower deck was hardly a spell at all as they had to work, the Sydney