Item 01: H. E. Gissing diary, 13 December 1914-17 December 1915 - Page 109
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[Page 109]
W.O.'s mess & then fell back into the pantry spinning round on the floor. I could not stop long as they were leaving the same night. They speak now of the Turks shelling as "straffing" & they say they were well strafed one incident of the loss of a sweeper she was unloading ammunition from a transport when owing to Turks getting the range the ship had to move forward. The sweeper remained & swung in a little & the propellor of the transport ripped her side out causing her to sink & eventually to partially blow up owing to having on board a special mine. This mine explodes when it reaches a depth of 30 feet as well as by contact & can be dropped on any object below such as a submarine. Last Wednesday afternoon I visited my unit on the other side of island & met old faces again not seen for 5 months. Best of all I received a mail out of 250 men without reinforcements our strength is now 88 including reinforcements
The rest being (3 killed) wounded or sick & spread over the whole