Part 28

A medical fellow came round and gave me an overhaul this morning. He tells me my heart is dilated--hence my severe breathlessness. I was told I must go to England, but need not expect to get away for a fortnight or so. The hospital is very airy but uncomfortably warm.

November 18th.--I am already feeling much better. I have a wonderful appetite and am thoroughly enjoying the good things set before me. My weight is now 10 stones 1 lb., and I must have gained at least 2 or 3 lbs. since I left the peninsula. I am still over 2 stones under my usual weight. I took a walk half-way up the promontory to the Khedivial Palace where I hoped to walk through the gardens. I had seen in the papers that the Sultan was up the Nile, but the two Egyptian N.C.O.'s at the gate refused to admit me, one saying, "de Sultan is in Alexandria". "Nonsense," I said, "he is up the Nile." "No, no, no," said the black, "de Sultan is here," pointing over his shoulder to the palace.

November 19th.--At mid-day I was ordered to pack up as I was to start for home. At the docks I was put on board the "Rewa" where the officers and nurses greeted me as an old friend. I learned that our destination was back to Lemnos, where I would be trans-shipped to the "Aquitania" which is booked to sail on the 22nd.

We sailed in the afternoon. The sea is rough, spray splashing all over the ship, the windows of the music room have to be kept shut, and it is hot and stifling--and I melt.

November 21st.--We reached Lemnos to-day after a run of forty-five hours from Egypt, a distance of 580 miles. The object of the "Rewa's" trip to Alexandria was to get drydocked and have her hull scraped. We could have done the trip in a few hours less than we actually took, but all last night and to-day we have had a furious gale in our teeth, which made us drop 4-1/2 knots per hour. The decks have been swept by the waves all day, and the awnings blown down more than once. We now lie in the outer harbour, while the four great funnels of our next boat can be seen towering over the hills that form the south side of the inner harbour. The cold is intense.

November 22nd.--We spent the night at anchor outside the boom. They commenced to raise the anchor at daylight, but were stopped by signal, so that now at 10 a.m. we lie here waiting orders. The cold to-day is terrific. The wind is probably stronger than ever and goes whistling through the rigging. Our latest orders are to lie here till the gale moderates.

3 p.m.--During the forenoon the "Olympic" passed close to us as she entered the harbour, and is now anchored near the "Aquitania".

November 23rd.--We raised anchor about 7 and moved straight out to sea for 2 or 3 miles when we thought we were to go home on the "Rewa," which had been spoken about as possible, but it turned out we had only gone out to bury a man who died last night. We turned and were soon manœuvring to get alongside the "Aquitania," but after very nearly giving her a bad bump we had to sheer off, and we have again anchored and wait for that tantalising wind to moderate.

In the afternoon we made another attempt to get on board the "Aquitania" and again failed.

November 24th.--After two hours fiddling about we managed to attach our fore and aft hawsers to the "Aquitania," and after breakfast we went on board our new home. This magnificent boat had 2300 patients last night and expects 2000 more to complete her load. She has a crew of 1000, thirty-six medical men and a large number of nurses. The "Aquitania" was at first a troopship and mounted four 6-inch guns, and has carried 7000 troops at a time, besides her crew. The distance from Lemnos to Southampton is 3080 miles, and with her proper coal, a mixture of Welsh and Newcastle, she has covered that distance in 4 days 18 hours. But for coal she has to rely mainly on the inferior stuff she picks up at Naples.

The fittings in the wheel house are most ingenious. For example, should fire break out the captain has only to open a cupboard which tells him where it is, and by touching a button he can flood any one of the six watertight compartments. A fan works automatically in this cupboard every five minutes, and if there is smoke in any compartment it is sucked up its corresponding tube. There are thirty-eight electric clocks on the ship, and as the time has to be changed continually as we go east or west, by moving the hands of a clock in the wheelhouse the hands of the thirty-eight move in unison.

We hear Greece has been presented with an ultimatum demanding her to come into the war on our side, otherwise to demobilise within two days. Another story says she has already joined the other side, and that our fleets have been engaged.

November 26th.--The Germans are at present accusing us of carrying troops and ammunition on our hospital ships, an excuse given out to the world for sinking the first good prize of the sort they come across. Of the sixty-four hospital ships we are said to possess the "Aquitania" would make the most desirable capture, and our most dangerous spot is the Aegean, from behind any of whose numerous islands a submarine lying in wait may dart out.

We are now approaching Sicily on our way to Naples. We cannot go through the Straits of Messina after dark, and our quickest and cheapest way is to anchor for the night, but the danger of attack prevents this and we have to go right round the island. We are doing about 20 knots against a stiff head wind. When pushed beyond this the consumption of coal is out of all proportion to the increase of speed, and being in no hurry they prefer to stick to what is called her economical speed.

November 27th.--I have been talking to an officer in the smoking-room who, like myself, was waiting for the library to open. He wished to hand in "The Life of Oliver Goldsmith," by Washington Irving. He says he is descended through his mother from Goldsmith, and he had taken out this book to find where Irving put his birthplace. "At Pallas," as he expected, "they all do so; even Johnson, who wrote his epitaph, made the same mistake." Goldsmith's father was rector of Pallas, and his wife had gone home to her parents at Elphin, in Roscommon, and it was here this great writer was born.

Naples Harbour. We arrived at this historic place at 6.15 p.m. We began to get in among the islands of the Bay between 4 and 5, but daylight soon began to fade and we did not get a good view of our surroundings. The first land we approached was Capri on our left, an island famed for its wines. On the other side was a small island, little more than a huge volcanic rock, with the gleaming white houses of a small town half-way to the summit. We could see Naples away at the top of the Bay, large houses all the way up the high rugged hills on which the town is built in the shape of a horseshoe. Behind the houses on the sea front rises mighty Vesuvius, her highest peak covered with snow, and belching out volumes of smoke which roll down the side of the hill and stretch out to sea in one big dense cloud. The whole town is most brilliantly lit, the glare of street lamps being a relief after Gallipoli.

We had some mild amusement to-day. These submarines are still a terror to those in charge of the ship. All the invalid Tommies are in hospital dress, trousers and jacket of light grey, and a brilliant red cotton handkerchief round the neck. All officers who wished to go on deck were ordered to wear this dress on account of the German publication that we carried troops, and if spies saw a lot of officers in uniform--and we'll have spies among the coal-heavers--there might be some faint reason for their pretended suspicions. After tea we donned our new garb, and about twenty of us collected on the wheelhouse deck. Out came a sailor who shouted, "No one but officers allowed here, away you go". Then in a few minutes out came another, "Now you privates, clear out of this; this is only meant for officers". The disguise was apparently complete, and the two poor sailors were the only ones who did not enjoy the joke. Our service caps were also forbidden, and we had all sorts of headgear. I had a long scarf wipped round my head in turban fashion and was said to be the worst looking ruffian of the lot.

It was bitterly cold on deck, and about 2 p.m. we had had a shower of hail. The hills beyond Naples are covered with snow.

November 28th.--On looking over the rail on my way to breakfast I found we were coaling at the hardest on both sides of the ship, barefooted coal-heavers, all at the gallop, carrying their baskets of coal from the barges and tilting them into shoots down among the lower decks. Bum boats, not unlike those of Malta, swarmed about the harbour, loaded with merchandise, such as oranges, tobacco, picture post cards, and beautifully finished models of mandolines and guitars, the vendors yelling at the pitch of their voices. Their transactions were carried on away down on E. deck, and even at that low level a bamboo rod twice the length of a fishing rod, with a bag at the end, had to be hoisted to reach their customers. You bawled out your order, put your money in the bag, and your goods appeared in a minute or two.

Another of our leviathans came in this morning to coal, the "Mauretania," a Cunarder like ourselves. She is a big boat but is dwarfed by the "Aquitania". I notice her bridge is on the 7th storey, ours is on the 9th.

The air is sharp but it is bright and sunny. Vesuvius and the magnificent city of Naples stand out clear in all their glory, and away to the north one gets a good view of the lofty Apennines, all with their peaks covered with snow, and over these the wind blows icy cold.

6 p.m.--We were allowed to tramp the boat deck in our hospital garb until mid-day when the O.C. the ship took it into his head to have us removed below. Now that it is dark we are allowed up again, and one is tempted, in spite of the cold, to remain there and admire the city which is a beautiful sight even at night. Vesuvius is in one of her quiet moods and gives out no glow from her crater. On the top of the hill behind the city is the Castle which reminds one of Edinburgh, and to the left of it towers Bartalini's hotel with its numerous storeys, a place where, an officer tells me, "you can get a hell of a good lunch, but you have to pay for it". There are trees everywhere among the houses. Many with tall, branchless stems and a spreading top, evidently of the fir family. Lombardy poplars and tall dark cypresses are everywhere.

Between us and this old Castle, at the water's edge, stands a lofty stronghold, black and forbidding, and I believe many atrocities were perpetrated here in the days of Garibaldi. Its high castellated battlements look as if they had a history.

We finished coaling about 3 p.m. and expected to get off at once, but no, the ship had snapped one of her cables and we could not sail until the 20 ton anchor and 50 fathoms of chain were fished up, and apparently this had not been done before dark, and we must now lie here till to-morrow. The harbour has a rocky bottom, and if an anchor catches behind a rock such an accident is apt to occur from a sudden jerk, and this is the second time it has happened to our boat in this self-same place.

November 29th.--Our whistle began its terrific row at 4.30 this morning. Its blasts are most unpleasant and seem to affect the stomach more than the ears. We began to circle round the "Mauretania" about 8, and by 8.30 we had cleared the breakwaters and were going down the Bay, the morning gloriously fine, almost a dead calm, and the houses and rocks sparkling in the sun. The whole forms a magnificent picture. "See Naples and die." We sailed close in to Ischia and we could see the terraces where the vines grow, beginning at the top of the perpendicular rocks and ascending the hill-sides like a giant's staircase. We pass a big liner flying the French flag, and she dips her stern flag as a salute.

At 8.15 p.m.--We passed Sardinia, but all that was visible was the revolving light of the lighthouse on the south point. There is now a strong gale, and we pitch and roll a good deal. But the wind is soft and warm, blowing from the African desert instead of the snowclad Apennines.

November 30th.--A beautiful day and warm.

I have been having a talk with one of our two captains of the ship. He tells me we have the most powerful wireless installation afloat, except on the big battleships. In Lemnos we can easily pick up the Poldhu messages, although our receiving distance is given as 2000 miles only. We can send out messages to a distance of 500 miles, but the only one allowed just now is the S.O.S. Between Lemnos and Sicily we received a message saying that submarines were operating all round Sicily, and the Consul of Naples warned the captain of another dangerous spot which we are at the present moment approaching. This boat was once fired at by a torpedo as she was entering Lemnos, and at the time was steaming slowly to let the "Mauretania" pass outwards, when another torpedo was fired at that ship, which also missed.