Item 01: Fred Hamilton-Kenny letter diary, 29 August-19 October 1914 - Page 118
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[Page 118]
Friday Oct 16th
We arrived at Suva about 1 pm yesterday 15th - From quite early in the morning heavy tropical rain fell & with interruptions it has continued to the present - It looks like an early rainy season - We followed our leader --The Encounter - & anchored by our old friend the Sydney - The fleet lay all around us & the big Frenchman - the Montcalm – with his guns stuck out was there too - Shortly after we anchored AE2 came alongside & then we found that she had lost a blade from her starboard propeller & at once preparations were started to put a new propeller on & remove the old one - All was well we heard - Tahiti had been shelled by the Germans & the cable at Fanning Island destroyed - We had heard a rumor of this before - The bombardment of defenceless Tahiti was loudly condemned on all hands - Pure savagery to bombard such a beautiful spot - There's a paper here - the Fiji Times - we got news from that -