Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 174
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[Page 174]
never seen any other train in his life.
[Transcriber's note: Following text struck out and repeated below.]
Still provided one wasn't in a hurry, wore old clothes, brought plenty of drinks and an air cushion or two, there was a lot of quiet fun to be got from a jaunt on the Jamaican Railways.
While the Sydney had been away up North a hurricane had passed over the island and the banana plantations had been flattened out and the fruit destroyed, resulting in a loss of many thousands of pounds. The trees themselves do not seem to suffer much - and with a little help and temporary shoring up soon assume the perpendicular again. The Melbourne just got the tail end of the hurricane and one of the big fruit steamers was lost.
These hurricanes are the terror of shipping in those parts. They appear to start to the north of the Gulf of Mexico & sweep in a sort of spiral right through the islands. Jamaica seemed to be blown flat about once a year.
On October 14th the Admiralty suddenly remembered our existence again and the Sydney got orders to sail with code books addressed to the Governor of British