Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 75
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[Page 75]
were carried on in an uncanny silence.
But the wine did its work and ere long there arose a spirited conversation in the weirdest jargon it could be ones lot to listen to imaginable accompanied by gesticulations which would have done infinite credit to a cage of monkeys.
After dinner French and British arm in arm found their way back to their ships - Heaven knows how - but it was done, and thus on the outer seas is the Entente Cordiale cemented.
Apart from the difficulty of intercourse we found Martinique a delightful spot and it was with great regret that we got orders to leave.
The ship sailed on Feb 2nd for [indecipherable] Island and Trinidad.
Of the Karlsruhe we had heard nothing for some time. She had last been reported authentically in mid December which time we lay snugly against the mole at Gib but the ghost had been seen many times since.
We had all sorts of statements and rumours that the Karlsruhe had been seen at a certain place on a given date and most often on searching the log it was found that the ship must have been ourselves or the Melbourne. This was really the only evidence the Sydney had that the Melbourne did sometimes go to sea.
The latest rumour was that wreckage of the Karlsruhe had been sighted off the Barbados and that one of her boats was ashore in Venezuela.
This proved to be true but the wreckage consisting