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[Page 19]
clothes, & went ashore, not a bad little ruse was it, they caught some of them coming home in the early hours of the morning, drunk of course. On the morning of the 31st we were roused by the bugles sounding the fire alarm about 3.30. we all hopped our of our hammock's & slipped up on deck & fell in quite orderly, all were cool, & calm, though most of us were in our shirts great volumes of smoke were issuing from one of the hatches, & soon the water was pouring into it from half a dozen hoses.
The sailors got the best of it in about an hour, & we were all dismissed, & went back to our hammock's, it was not a very nice beginning was it.
we were laying alongside the pier when this happened, at the other side the "Benalla" was taking in water you should have seen her cast loose & back out, she lost no time about it. Every morning the bugle would sound "attention", & everyone would spring to it, while the band played "God Save the King", when the other boats saw us do this, they wondered what we were up to, but when they found out, what we were doing it for, I believe they all followed our example this is what we were told, & I believe its true.
While we were, at Albany the New Zealand ships came in, & very smart they looked, for they were all painted a grey colour, like the warships, we now had such a fleet in the harbour