MacNamara diary, 19 August 1916-29 May 1919 / John Patrick MacNamara - Page 12
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[Page 12]
August 19th 1916
Sailed from Sydney at noon on Sat Aug 19th. Tis a day I am not likely to forget in a hurry, but it was somewhat marred by the fact that there was not a soul on the wharf whom I knew except a few chaps from camp. The reason of this was that I was an emergency man to the reinforcerment & was uncertain until 2 hours before the boat sailed as to whether I would be going or not. I did not like saying good bye to all my friends & then perhaps not sailing. Even if I had wished I could not possibly have said good bye to a lot of people as I only joined the reinforcement the day before they went down to the boat & then I was put on baggage guard at the boat the night before sailing & only got a few hours leave from 8pm to midnight. It took us the best part of Friday afternoon to put out all the hammocks