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[Page 119]
There was some very good talent among the Diggers. Our slumber was disturbed about 2 A.M. on the 7th of January by the anchor being dropped then the stopping of the Ship's engines, which caused a number of the boys to go up on deck where it was found the ship was in side Colombo Harbour. Everyone was soon up & dressed in the expectation of being allowed leave on shore but before the day had advanced very far we were informed that no leave was to be granted. The ship was lying well out from the shore with very little chance of the boys breaking ship so all resolved themselves to their fate anxiously waiting to the ship to resume its voyage. Colombo is a very pretty place to look at from the water, the harbour being divided from the sea by a ship breakwater which has double overlapping entrance. There were also two other troopships in the Harbour, the Burma & Nestor both of these being loaded with our boys bound for home. We stayed here for two days during which time the ship took, Coal, water, fruit & general supplies all of the loading being down by black natives who by their actions & talk caused a certain amount of humour. During the stay the boys indulged in swimming in the harbour off the sides of the ship coal barges & many of the boys even swam from our ship to the Nestor & Burma & vice versa. Several swimming races & diving competitions were also indulged I, this causing some very keen competition at the same time supplying something of interest to while the time of waiting away. At mid-day on the 9th the ship left Colombo on the last lap for home which proved to be a very long one before it finished. We crossed the line a little before noon on the 11th but on this occasion nothing exceptional took place as all hands on board had previously crossed the line. Things went along very quietly until the 14th when we passed quite close to the Cocos Islands which however were left far astern by sunset. During the 21st the ship pulled into Fremantle but anchored some considerable distance off the land but that afternoon the Western Australians were taken off the ship in a big tug-boat it being fairly rough at the time. Whilst here we received copies of the daily papers also finding that several deaths had been reports through Influenza also a number of cases aboard our ship. This caused our troops to become indignant for as far as could be found out not one case of Flue had occurred during the whole voyage. It was here that I began to realize, on seeing the West Australian leaving the ship, that I was actually back in Aussie a thing I had often thought impossible on many previous occasions. Fruit & vegetables were sent out in Goverment lauches which was taken about but the ship lay at anchor all that night. At 8.30 next morning the ship weighed anchor then was soon on the move once more, running into a fairly heavy sea which caused the bad sailors to become sea sick again. After leaving Fremantle the troops had to go through a spray in a small room on the deck, as a preventative against the Flue for it seemed to us that the Heads were scared but there were cases on board. Throughout the whole day of the 23rd the ship followed along the coast until about 5 P.M. when we pulled into Albany Harbour & dropped anchor. Albany is a very pretty place, situated between two big hills right at the waters edge but the ship was too far out to be able to form any definite opinion about the city itself. We had not been at anchor very long when water tugs arrived then started to pump water aboard for it was for this reason the ship had called into Albany. Our stay here lasted until 2 P.M. the next day when we moved out of the harbour following along the coast for some distance.