Item 02: John Duncan McRae diary, 11 December 1916-9 February 1917 - Page 55

[Page 55]

would suffer frightfully in the event of fire or torpedo surprise.

Jan 5. On guard in a life-belt today. The sea is very calm; more calm indeed than Sydney Harbour generally is and the boat is consequently making good progress. The sunset was glorious tonight and the bright clouds looked like molten gold mixed with burnished copper. The moon rose early and on my 1-3 night shift it shed a great stream of silver across the silent ocean, a stream which made the dead earth seem to live & which forbade me to feel tired or lonely, & robbed sleep of its prey.

Our officer's name is Breckenridge, & he is a son of the timber merchant of the same name & most likely father has heard of him in business before.

Jan 6. We had a rest this morning after our night's guard – and as there was only a tug-of-war contest in the afternoon we read & played five-hundred