Item 01: J. E. Morrison diary, 13 October 1917-29 October 1918 - Page 57
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[Page 57]
Being one of the shire boats & one of Leylands of Liverpool. Both ships being over 12000 tons register. NB Thousands of bags of mails lost & a few saved.
A matter of only 20 lives lost between the two ships out of 4000 troops the rest saved by the Destroyer escort & landed at Marseilles. Here at Marseilles we had 100 of the Fiji boys working our cargo under Capt. Williams our Suva stevedore. They having been at the front until a few days ago for 12 months & have proved themselves far superior to the West India negroes. They were delighted to meet a Australian ship & found out several of them were formally on the SS Levuka & myself & several others knew them personal. These chaps are maintained by Mr Henry Marks a wealthy merchant at Suva who maintains their wives & gave £10.000 towards their expenses.
The docks here like Taranto Italy are patrolled by British troops as well as French troops. As far as we can gather Italy & France depends wholly on Britain. Dozens of French ships are tied up here, several large trans Atlantic steamers that has been out of commission for 18 months. Yet the papers talk of short of shipping. Up the city last night the soldiers were having a gay time.