Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 326
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[Page 326]
CHAPTER 10.
Out of a Job
On the 17th April the Sydney in pursuance of orders left Lavandeira and made for St. Lucia, and everybody prayed fervently that it might never be their unhappy lot to see the reef again. Now Trinidad is on the way to St. Lucia from Lavandeira, and all the officers wished to go there to see their pals. As I have said before, it was one of the cheeriest and most comfortable refuges for us in the whole group, and it seemed a pity to pass it by. But what was to be done? Orders laid down that the Sydney was to proceed direct to St Lucia. At last the surgeons were consulted and bribed with beer and asked to make someone sufficiently ill to render a call at Trinidad imperative. At Trinidad, be it known, there is a good hospital, and at St. Lucia there is none. Curiously enough, on April 22nd a stoker developed an acute appendix and was in urgent need of operation. In a ship one doesn't feel justified in doing a major operation if there is a possibility of giving the patient the advantage of a hospital. So with grave and solemn