Iles war diary, 1914-1919 / G. H. Iles - Page 213
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[Page 213]
boat had a miraculous escape, they had, but a very few moments before, left the "Vanguard" to proceed to the "Royal Oak" to convey the officers back to their ship, so fortunately all these persons narrowly escaped. there were other parties absent from the ship at the time of the explosion, such as those undergoing gunnery, torpedo, and oil fuel course, thereby reducing the number of casualties, to what it may have been.
July 10th [1917] At 8.30 P.M. after a hard day, painting ship, our Captain had everybody very interested in a lecture he was about to give, dwelling upon his war experiences, and which was; - At the outbreak of war, or in fact previous to the war he was serving in H.M.S. "Southampton" which formed one of a squadron of ships that visited the Kiel Canal (in the June of the year of the outbreak) - our Captain who was at that time Commander Astley-Rushton sat at the luncheon, just opposite the Kaiser, and he told us of the Kaisers actions, and impressions that he gave to others, anyhow they had very gay time whilst at Kiel, and the German Naval officers were intensely anxious to see all that