Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 58
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[Page 58]
Next day after coaling and oiling and refilling the depleted magazines we pushed off for Gibraltar to refit.
After a peaceful passage in which the only sign of war was the jamming of the Eiffel Tower messages by the big Hun stations in Germany, the Sydney arrived off Gibraltar at daybreak on Sunday 6th December. As we approached the Rock, the Mooltan steamed out bound for Australia, and when the Australian ensign was seen crew and passengers cheered wildly. There were many of us perhaps who would have given much to be bound the same way. Torpedo boats met us and went ahead into the Harbour sweeping for mines and we had the usual attack of cold feet as we followed them in.
The Sydney went alongside the mole and her refit was taken in hand and for three weeks one listened night and day to the incessant hammer and clang of drills and rivetters while her shattered plates were renewed.
Gib [Gibraltar] impresses the onlooker with its might and inaccessibility, its frowning batteries command the straits and in truth seem to hold the gateway to the Mediterranean. Whether Gib is still the stronghold it used to be in these days of twenty inch guns is a problem which has not yet been solved.
The Harbour was full of ships of war and some of them bore famous names. The Hampshire in which Lord Kitchener afterwards was lost lay just ahead of us and nearby was the Yarmouth one of the pack that chased the Emden for so many miles. The Vengeance lay just astern afterwards sunk in the Dardanelles while a day or two after we arrived the Carmania came in.
The Carmania a great Cunarder of 18000 tons was the