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[Page 16]
12
"Asleep in the deep".
10.30 pm : Turning in. I am invited to partake of Tea with Lieut Butler (the 2nd Officer & a grand little chap too) at 3 am at which hour I shall be going the rounds.
Thurs 27th : Supplied the men with oilskins, WPSheets & brown hats, also mosquito nets & housewives, the last two being supplied by the ladies of Melbourne, "Gawd bless 'em", as one old salt remarked. There was a time when people who used what is generally known as bad language were anathema to me; but I have met so many people lately who swear like troopers (which I consider a very apt simile) but are sterling in all other respects, that I am beginning to attach very little importance to the embellishments of the King's English. Some observations are remarkably concise but supremely forcible. One officer whom I can never think of but with the greatest respect & good fellowship, told me today that he was referred to as "one of those b___ two stripe Reserve B___s". If this is not the cream of expletives what is? Our H.A.A. told me tonight of some of his experiences in the good (?) old days on the E Coast of Africa. He is a short stout man, clean shaven, with a pace that would serve as a vignette for a book of Comic Cuts. He was explaining the meaning of "10-a" punishment. "I did 14 days myself once, Sir," he said; & I settled back for a yarn. The offence was a trivial one, but it caused the natives at Zanzibar, who were crating ship, to go on strike; consequently the ship's company had to turn to, which was an item in those regions. For punishment he was ordered 7 days "10 a", which consists of standing at attention on deck looking steadfastly at the paint work for 2 hours daily. A messmate, who was undergoing the same punishment asked how he got thro' the 2 hours. "I go to sleep", he replied. "Standing up?" "Yes! I count the rivets in the plates fore & aft".