Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 185
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[Page 185]
officially declared.
After thirteen days in Harbour during which most of us as usual took the cure for a few days up in the Hills, we got orders to leave for Progreso, the chief port in Yucutan.
A certain ship, the Zealandia, of German nationality, had been taken over by an American syndicate, fitted for sea and had sailed under the American flag from a Northern port in the United States. Where a bona fide sale of a German ship to genuine American owners was effected, one understands that the British Government offered no objection, but in a country like the United States, then neutral, now happily our ally, where the population was of mixed nationality, one had to consider whether the new owners were not Teutons also the half brothers of the old. To guard against any difficulties arising from German ships sailing under the Stars and Stripes, the British Government was forced to place the onus of proof upon those who professed to have bought the ship been the purchasers. In the case of Zealandia, for some reason with which the writer is unacquainted, the sale was not recognised and when the ship put to sea and made south for Yucutan with a contraband cargo and a crew composed mainly of Huns, the Sydney was sent to investigate. We left Kingston on 15th November and appeared off Progreso three days later.
Progreso looks a wilderness from the sea.
Like much of the coast in those regions, the place is low lying and swampy, and, just as at Demerara, we had to anchor several miles out.
The Zealandia was there with her mud hook down being watched by the Isis, one of our patrolling cruisers and both had been there for several days. The Isis people were very bored with life.