Item 01: Irene Victoria Read letters from her husband, 27 November 1914-1 November 1915 - Page 48
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[Page 48]
The service was identically the same as that for the Church of England. The ship was rolling a good deal & we had some difficulty in maintaining the erect position when the hymn "Stand up, stand up for Jesus" was being rendered. We sighted Cocos or Keeling Island at 10.30 AM & were quite close to it for 2 ½ hours but saw no trace of the "Emden". There are several islands in the group – they are all very low lying with white sandy beaches & numerous coconut palms.
On Monday 21st the sports for the nurses came off. I took part in the "biscuit eating" tune whistling event. In this, the men are each told a certain tune & race from one end of the deck to their partners, who hand them a large biscuit which has to be hurriedly eaten. As soon as this has been accomplished the tune has to be whistled & when the lady has got the tune she writes it down on a piece of paper & her partner then races off to the finishing point. The efforts at disposing of the very dry biscuit & at endeavouring to make one's partner appreciate what tune is being whistled were in many cases quite ludicrous. In my heat I managed to dispose of the biscuit first