[Page 29]
scene but was nothing to what was to follow. A large number of the men were not content to go on board but must needs to go up town to call at more Freemantle pubs, & just therein lay our later trouble.
Went on board at once with Chaplain Holliday, intending to get 2 or 3 hurried letters written, but was almost immediately pounced upon by the Orderly Officer & detailed for duty to take out a picket of 20 men to round up drunks. While getting the picket together, taking their names etc numbers of dead drunk men were coming aboard as well as many of the crew.
With some difficulty I got the picket down onto the wharf & away thro' the big crowd waiting there, & then commenced the disgusting task of going into bar after bar to haul out drunken men & push them along to the boat. The picket worked well, but as we had strict orders to be back at 10 min to 4 for embarkation, it was not possible to visit more than about half a dozen of the numerous pubs, & I was not much surprised the next day to find that some 10 or 12 men missed the ship; they are posted as deserters, of course, & will be dealt with as such by the W.A. authorities.
We got back, with some difficulty driving in front of us the captives, & then came a wait until 4.30 on the wharf, telling off 2 men to go to a certain spot where it was reported that a man was lying: 4 to go somewhere else, & so on. When I did go up on board it was to find a real state