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[Page 69]
1914
of fresh food, including over 800 bottles of beer (even though it was German) intended for the men's Xmas dinner. Also we had very satisfactory war news sent on board by the British Minister at Lima, & plenty of newspapers to read. Once again we could enjoy potatoes & fresh meat, & altogether life was most enjoyable. Our next place of call was to be Valparaiso, where we were to take in coal.
Dec. 20
On the second day out from Callao we passed the British ships "Orcoma & "Maplebranch", being escorted by the Peruvian cruiser "Coronel Borognesi". Apparently, for some time, ships carrying goods to Chilian & Peruvian ports were being escorted by the navies of these countries, which was as much in their own interests as in ours. We kept fairly close inshore for a couple of days. Quite an interesting feature was the large number of whales spouting in the vicinity of the ship, & also the large number of birds which alighted on the ship.
Dec. 21.
Cooler weather prevailed as we proceeded south, & we were compelled to don blue jackets in place of the white tunics we had worn during the previous 5 months. Amongst the interesting birds which were to be seen flying near the ship were many long beaked birds of a large size, apparently of the pelican species. We spoke a Chilian merchant ship proceeding north, but she had nothing to report. Before proceeding to Valparaiso the Admiral decided to visit the