Item 01: Walter Lawry Waterhouse diary, 15 January-27 March 1916 - Page 39

[Page 39]

of the northern point of the bay. All this time we were moving at less than ½ speed, & presently it was "dead slow": the view as we lay about a mile off the breakwater was glorious, & the picture of the sun rising right in front of us one that we wished to make permanent.

Away to the left (the N) stretched the low-lying northerly cape of Colombo Bay, apparently covered with cocoanuts & other vegetation, but fading away to blue ocean in the distance.

Closer in, lying stranded on the beach with a big list to starboard was a fair-sized steamer (2 masts & 1 funnel) which we afterwards heard had been wrecked last monsoon. At first we thought she had the cut of a warship, but we were wrong. Close by her were 2 or 3 native craft, & later several of them came close to the ship when it could be seen that they were rather roughly constructed, the neat workmanship of Fijian canoe being awanting: the oars were poles with a flat roundish blade attached to the end, but were well-wielded by the natives. In one case they paddled past they kept time to a native song or chant reminding me very much of a Fijian "meke".

Following round to the right past the stranded steamer, the cocoanuts growing down to the water's edge could be seen. The ground here was slightly undulating & in the crest the palm leaves against the sky line looked very pretty. A little further round the dome of a mosque against the sky