Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 72]
Ricochet. We passed close to the Cocos Keeling, and it seemed a pity we could not run over and have a look at the Emden. One of the boys on board is making his second attempt to get to the front and was with the 40 original transports whom the "Sydney" was convoying when she demolished the Emden. He described how she swung out from the line, almost hidden from view in her own smoke, and how a Japanese cruiser an hour later leapt right across the line of transports, and with one sweep of her guns trained them all on a speck that appeared on the horizon where the Sydney had disappeared. It must have been a stirring time.
Once in the Tropics it became too hot to sleep below, and we were allowed to take our beds on deck. A blank over boards isn't the softest thing, but we are quite used to it now. My hips were more like camel's knees than anything else after a few weeks of sleeping on the floor. Who wouldn't be a soldier! There wasn't much work to be done on the trip across the Indian Ocean.
They gave us a good many parades, but otherwise there was little except occasional picket and fatigue partly work. However I was snared for 3 weeks work in the isolation ward below decks. It was most disagreeable work, and during the daytime I had little or no time on deck.
We turned into the Gulf of Aden on the 5th August. Here we met the only Monsoonal weather of the whole trip, and it nearly blew the boat out of the water. At 2.30 pm on the 6th August we came in sight of land. Although the trip could not be said to have dragged, it was nevertheless a welcome sight. It was the entrance to the roadstead, for you can't call it a harbor, of Aden. The mountains run sheer into the sea, and great picturesque contours make it scenery never to be forgotten. From the point of view of defence, I should think that Aden has potentialities of a Gibraltar. We gradually came in view of the town, and drew up to a buoy in full view of it, and not more than ½ a mile distance from the shore. It is a quaint town. The buildings are of course of the common Arab type, square, the average one of a very fair size, and of a