Item 04: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1916 - Page 58

[Page 58]

Do you remember that I told you that a person under 21 could not make a will? Well most of the chaps on board seem to think a soldier can. How would it be to ask Mr. Meares?
We are having a lovely trip and I am getting like Baby Bliss. I heard a good recipe the other day for a man who cant grow a moustache: it is put treacle on your lip, and then let the mosquitoes settle there, when there is a good mob of them you give them a fright & they fly away and leave their legs behind.
They say it makes quite a fine moustache so I am thinking of trying it.
We have a very bad tempered horse here that is always bighting at the crew when they pass; they call him "Shylock" because they say he is always after his pound of flesh.
I went all through the stoke hold and engine room the other evening and it was awfully interesting. The propeller shaft is about is about 40 yards long and as thick as your body so you can imagine what it weighs, and yet there it is spinning round night and day with out a tremour: it must be marvelously
laid.
One thing that struck me was the refrigerator with frost thick all over it standing in the engine room, which has a temperature of about 180 degrees.
There are four boilers, each with four fires, and the steam pressure has to be kept the same in all of them so it takes some stokeing.
We left Fremantle on a beautiful real Australian morning and steamed out to the tune of "Hearts of Oak" on a cornet from one of the boats in the harbour.
It is wonderful how you find chaps on board