Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 126
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[Page 126]
was a pretty sight.
Along the sea front is a great marine parade two miles long lit by brilliant electric lights at twenty yard intervals. Running back up the gently sloping hill on which the town is built were the street lights all in perfect line for the town is built in squares and the whole place looked like an illuminated chessboard.
Behind me a big yellow tropical moon and in the foreground lay the still purple tinted sea. We steamed up and down feasting on the sight till it grew quite dark and then the ship's head was swung for Nassau the capital of the British Bahamas off the coast of Florida.
We didnt land at Havana that trip but did so on a subsequent voyage and were advertised in the local papers as the big Australian battleship that sunk the Emden!
We arrived at Nassau with despatches for the Governor on May 31st and the populace went mad.
They had not seen a warship since November of 1914 when the Essex came in and stayed a couple of hours. The Bahamas are a [indecipherable] group of islands with only only one of which is inhabited to any extent. This is New Providence on which the town of Nassau stands.