Hyder's letter to his mother, written 27-28 July 1915 / Laurie E. Hyder - Page 5

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ships steaming towards the Dardenells. You might think by this time as we knew we were just on the point of going into battle that we would be all very quiet & saying our prayers, but that was not the case, we were all as lively as ever & singing songs & playing games just as if we were on a nice sea trip. At 11 o'clock up came the anchor & we were off, we just crawled along, we were all made to go to bed early as we had to be up at 3 in the morning, I could not sleep I was two excited I kept going up on deck every now & then it was a lovely starry moonlight night. I lent over the rails of the ship thinking of you all as I never have thought of you before. We knew we had no easy task before us as our Colonel told us that dozens of us would never get ashore & he was right too. Well Mother darling I gave all your photos a long farewell kiss I also had a note in my pocket book to be sent home to you in case I was toppled off. I always carry my wallet with the photos in in my left hand pocket over the heart. At last the ship cam to a standstill about 4 in the morning of April 25th 1915. We could just distinguish land about 2 miles off with mountainous hills towering up, the excitement was getting intense