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[Page 76]
work in safety. On the beaches around it there are built very strong trenches & barbed wire entanglements. It is reckoned to be the most strongly fortified place in the world & it certainly looks it. There are sentries everywhere & extreme caution is taken to see that no one gains any knowledge of the inside workings, except very responsible Officials. There is a neutral line drawn up between it & Spain & no British are allowed across that, or they would become liable to be interred whilst war is on. Nearly all of the workmen are Spaniards & everything is conducted by British Officers & Clerks. Nothing whatever can leave Gibraltar without an order from the Admiralty. The water supply is mostly obtained from Morocco, on the opposite coast, but concrete water catches have been built & these run the rainfall into large tanks. Everybody speaks English & English money is used. Destroyers & Cruisers are cruising about in the straits & on every peak a gun is mounted. So nobody has much chance of gaining an entrance to the Meditteranean. Having taken in coal we left at 4.30 p.m. for London.
July 1st 9.a.m. Got a message from a Japanese Maru boat by wireless to say that she came across a ship being sunk by a submarine & turned & made off & that the submarine chased them for an hour & then gave up as it could not catch them. The position given was Lat 49°N Long 6°W. that is 48 miles North West of Ushant. We will be there at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
3 p.m. The Captain has changed our course & insted of passing 25 miles off Ushant will go in to within 5 miles of it.