Item 01: J. E. Morrison diary, 13 October 1917-29 October 1918 - Page 134
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[Page 134]
Taranto
hydroplanes & airoplane bases. Also torpedoe firing practice & heavy guns. Taranto being full of dreadnoughts, cruisers & torpedoe boats, it being one of the strongholds of the Italian Navy. Here we met the H.M.T. Ormonde one of our former convoy which is loading troops & foodstuffs for Egypt & due to leave on the 24 or 25 inst. Also several French obsolete cruisers used as troopships conveying troops to & from Salonika & Corfu & Greece.
The British naval officer informs us that up to the present during this war they have had 700,000 troops through Taranto not including Italians & have had not a single accident in the embarking & disembarking. Considering the work is all done by lighters as there is not sufficient water for the transports to go alongside the wharves. This work of Allied troops & cargo (war material is all done by the British naval authorities (which is a credit).
We are expected to leave here in the course of 10 days full of cargo & troops for Kantara, Suez Cannel, the main base for Palastine. Working cargo night & day so expect to fill up. So many ships have been torpedoed amongst the cargo