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[Page 48]
round to the wharf where the British drifters were moored. On arriving there they found about four hundred Officers and men from the drifters formed up in three sides of a hollow square. The Australian Sailors then filled up the fourth side when Vice Admiral Hemming, R.N., C-in-C Taranto, addressed the assembled crews.
In a few concise words he pointed out that the drifter men working on the Adriatic barrage, through being entirely unprotected in their more than ordinarily hazardous work, had suffered many casualties and lost a lot of their ships. (In July of that year the Austrians had come down and sunk fourteen of our drifters, and inflicted severe damage and many casualties on the remaining ships, besides taking prisoners fifty or sixty Officers and men.)
These Gallant Gentlemen
"But the advent," Admiral Hemming went on to say, "of the Australian flotilla has altered all that and you will now be able to carry on the work for which you so nobly volunteered safe in the knowledge that should the Austrians again venture south they will be engaged by - waving his hand to where the Australians stood - these gallant gentlemen here who have come from Australia to join with you in suppressing the universal foe, the submarine."
A few more remarks in similar strain, and the crews returned to their respective ships. The following day the flotilla left for Brindisi, which port was to be its base until the signing of the Armistice.
Brindisi was reached on Oct. 12th and the flotilla berthed stern on to the Marina (water front) between a division of French & Italian destroyers.
Port of Brindisi
Brindisi no doubt is known in a casual sort of way to travellers from this country bound to Europe. It was to this port that the fast P. & O. packet boats, the "Isis" and "Osiris", plied form Port Said taking with them those passengers who were in a hurry to get to their destination, or who wished to avoid the sea passage between Port Said & England.