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[Page 8]
was very easy to procure a mess orderly as he was exempt from general lectures, sometimes Church, drill, muster parades, and anything else the officers might bother the men to do. The most looked for variation in the "Menu" was plum pudding which we got served to us every alternate Sunday.
I might mention that the first week of the voyage was most memorable one for me as I was very seasick and cared little at the time if a submarine chanced to put us under the water. After I had recovered from my seasickness, I volunteered for the job as deck fatigue, which duties were to sweep a portion of the deck twice a day.
When out in the midst of the Indian Ocean a death occurred on board, a few days after which, a burial service was held. Just before the service was held the boat was stopped and turned face about, and the coffin lay in the slings hanging over the ship's rails ready to be lowered into the sea at a certain juncture of the service. Finally, the body was lowered into the sea and we all stood to attention while a volley was fired and the "Last Post" sounded. If it were possible for any stranger to come on to the ship he would have noticed the solemn faces of the soldiers, they were a contrast from the faces that were before the funeral.
A few more days passed by, and we were nearing Capetown for we could see the lighthouses at night on all the Capes from Port Elizabeth round to Table Bay. Just before morning when it was dark and foggy the boat stopped, and when daylight came we found ourselves in Table Bay. It was the prettiest sight I had ever seen, for when the sun began to come out the fog gradually rose up the steep sides of Table Mountain, until eventually we saw the flat top of the mountain. The Table Mountain is not the only pretty feature, for there are other fresh green hills which rise abruptly from the seashore, and are dotted here and there with cosy little homes- homes of fishermen perhaps.
By lunch time we had pulled alongside the wharf, and the first sport we had was throwing coins to the black fellows who would leave their work and scramble for them, occasionally resulting in a fight, which would encourage us to throw more coins.