Series 01: George Lillie war diary, 24 August 1914-24 April 1915 - Page 15

[Page 15]

every event went off.

Nov 5th
The sea watery calm & the weather is beginning to get hot the consequence being that an awning & also a bath have been fixed up on the lower decks. The Osterley passed quite closejust about dusk. They were given a few cheers as they went by. They are very lucky to see the sight they seen in the boats all in a line making for Colombo.

Nov 9th
We were still making slow progress to Colombo steaming about 250 miles per day. Today morning about 7 o'clock the cruiser Sydney was detached from the convoy to proceed to the vicinity of Cocos islands where a German Warship was seen. It appears that as soon as the German Cruiser exchanged a few shots with the Sydney, it stranded itself so as to avoid sinking. The Cruiser is believed to be the Emden. The British Casualties were 2 killed & 13 wounded