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[Page 9]
surface are very misleading. Mistakes will happen even at the best of times as our orders are that even no Allies submarine is allowed near a convoy unless specially advised before hand. Mr. Leese our purser left tonight for the shore & could not obtain accomodation in any hotel so had to sleep & put up on the Malwa H.M.T. Some of the officers & engineers spent the evening on the Port Darwin. She is going to leave Port Said for Australia in the course of a few days. The Best part of our late crew have to put up with make shifts ashore whilst awaiting a passage back to Australia as Port Said is overcrowded just now with the Military those on shore leave.
Nov. 1.
At 2.30 a.m. Capt. James of the Surada H.M.T. one of the B.I. ships & Capt. Davies of the H.M.T. Enterprise found whilst ashore the night before that I was on the Indarra & leaving at 6 a.m. so they called woke me up at 2.30 a.m. They being old schoolmates & Capt. James would have the 2 of us go aboard his Transport. So we got over at 3 a.m. The H.M.T. Surada being a mile away. We had a good time & came back to the H.M.T. Indarra at 5.30 a.m. in time to commence unmooring. At 6 a.m. we departed from Port Said in charge of a pilot & he left outside the minefield. Having lost our former convoy & through the change of crew, we were sent with some slow ships & the speed had to be reduced to 10 knots. The ships composed of the H.M.T. Indarra, Burmuda which was sunk & submerged at Alexandria for 4½ months & salvaged