Item 01: Irene Victoria Read letters from her husband, 27 November 1914-1 November 1915 - Page 93
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[Page 93]
to be forts. A single span masonry bridge crossing a deep ravine between two peaks formed quite a picturesque feature in the back ground. We steamed for an hour past towering cliffs & at 3 P.M. cast anchor in the open sea about a mile from the town of Aden. From the ship all that we could see of the town were a lot of low buildings with red roofs – we were told that they were military barracks. In the harbour were a few steamers & amongst them a large armed liner, which brought home to us very forcibly the fact that we were in a state of war. Soon after our arrival we were besieged by innumerable [indecipherable] boat men, they were not allowed on the ship but clustered round us in their boats & vied with each other till it was dark in their frantic effort to dispose of their wares. These men were mostly Arabs but there were also amongst them quite a number of Turks. They would throw ropes up to the men on the deck, a basket was then tied to the rope & hauled up. When an agreement was arrived at as to the price of an article the coin was placed in the basket & lowered to the shopkeeper who extracted the coin & replaced it with his goods. These were generally done up in highly coloured paper wrappings & comprised cigars, cigarettes, matches, dates,