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[Page 14]
August continued. 1915
The country was said to be very rough and so we had orders to put on breeches instead of shorts. This order was cancelled shortly after everyone had taken the trouble to get the breeches out of the packs and do them up again. This caused a considerable amount of grumbling. Some of the foolish men had thrown their shorts away. All ranks were issued with 200 rounds of ammunition and two days rations. Water was said to be very scarce and so we were ordered to fill all available tins with water ready to take off with us. No one appears to realise that water carried in open tins on a small boat and carried down ladders and over all kinds of obstacles will certainly be spilt. It was on this famous ship that I learnt to my horror that the sun rose in the south in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope this officer will soon find out his mistake or he may lead his Battalion in the opposite direction to the one required.
August 19th We arrived at Lemnos, but land was first sighted at 6.45 on the 17th. The country was rocky with light barren soil, without any kind of vegetation except around small villages. Passed a burning mountain about 8 hours sail from Lemnos, the locality or name of which I do not know. As we entered Lemnos Harbour we counted 20 War ships, 10 Hospital ships, an over 100 other large steamers including transports. The Flag the Blue Ensign was raised as we passed the first War ship and all on board cheered. The flag was lowered after we passed.
We remained at anchor for three days and then changed over to another ship called the Osmaniah a small 20 knot boat, which before the war traded between Alexandria and Constantinople. She was fortunate to leave Turkish waters a day or so before war was declared. A dispute arose over the Officers mess. The English Officers managed to get a good meal served up to them and refused the Australian Officers admittance.
Before leaving Lemnos everyone managed to get a swim and some swam over to some of the other transports. The Staff Officer on the Osmaniah before the boat had hardly been made fast, called out through a megaphone The 19 Battalion and the number of men and officers, the 5th Field Ambulance will disembark on to the Osmaniah. The 20th Btn will remain on board for the time being. The Osmaniah soon got going and we passed lines of Warships, French and British, and also many transports from all we received cheers with occasional signalling and waving of hats. The fast boat with her Greek crew made the water fly away from her stern and we expected to arrive at the Peninsular that night. Some of us lay down on deck to try and get a few hours sleep after making many trips round the ship to prevent smoking, or any kind of light.