Item 01: Sir Charles Rosenthal diary, 25 September 1914-31 December 1918 - Page 86
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[Page 86]
officer present, Col Hobbs, Christian and Johnstone not having yet arrived in Port. The first impression my mind and vision received of this monster Battleship was one of awe. A description of her as far as I am able I will note later.
Just after leaving "prayers" were said in which we all joined, and it appears a nice feature of naval life that the sailor who does not know whether today shall be his last or not, has at all events opportunity given him to place himself under the care of the Almighty. After service all the men ran round and round the deck at a smart double to the accompaniment of bright lively tunes from the Ships band. This continued for 5 minutes, and on a blast from a bugle the whole crowd halted and instantly commenced doubling in the opposite direction as if to unwind their previous movement. At the end of the second 5 minutes the same procedure took place again, giving in all 15 minutes smart doubling, the middies accompanying the men. There followed a few minutes physical exercise prior to dismissal to their various duties.
They look a fine hefty lot of men.
We had not proceeded very far before speed was increased and soon we were dashing through the water at 25 knots. The ship was like a rock, no movement, but the wash astern was tremendous. One sea came on the after deck and gave some of our officers as well as naval officers a wetting.
We have passed two French submarines the "Le Voisier" and "Coulumb", both very queer looking craft. In passing I May mention I was today told that our A.E.2 is due here from Malta in a day or two and is to do duty here. As we neared the Dardanelles we saw three rather fine looking battleships, and when passing about 500 yd from them I enquired their names. I was informed they were merchant service ships, rigged as dummies; funnels, guns, wireless gear, fighting tops etc. They are evidently serving a very useful purpose in "bluffing" the Turks.
When we came off the entrance to the Dardanelles course was set up the West Coast of the Gallipoli peninsula at a distance of probably six or seven thousand yards from the shore. Just about this time a Destroyer of the "Beagle" class (a later class from Australian "River" type) joined us and convoyed us round till the time for leaving in the afternoon.
As we were coming up to the entrance we could see on our left at some distance the fleet of Men O' War standing by, and actually at the entrance three Men O' War and a Destroyer. Two of the Men O' War were "proping off" in the direction of Troy, searching for Field Howitzers and incidentally practising communication by wireless from Aircraft working in conjunction with them and "spotting" their shooting for them. We could see the flashes of discharge at the ships side, and bursts of shell on main land.