Mediterranean Sea
10.4.16
Dear May
After about three & a half months of desert life we have at last said farewell to Egypt, & our hopes & expectations are about to be realized. It will probably be some weeks before we see fighting & during the interval we expect to be billeted in French villages. The billeting method seems to have been adopted as the most suitable as well as the safest. Each house undertakes to billet so many men – perhaps two, perhaps a dozen, & the companies are split up accordingly. I am not sure about our meals but I expect we will get them where we stay. It will be a new experience & if we strike a good house we should have a rather enjoyable time. Will tell you about that later. At present we are trying to reckon out how many pennies
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change we will get if we give a 5 piastre piece for an article worth 1 franc. The trip from Ism. To Pt Said was one we will not forget in a hurry. We left about 8 pm with full packs & blankets & marched close on two miles to the station to entrain. The accommodation provided is nothing to boast about – just plain open trucks with side about a foot high, & they bundled 24 into each truck. We all huddled down onto the floor but it was most uncomfortable; however there was a good deal of singing going on & every now & then the band would give us a tune so that the time passed not so badly, but we were not sorry when, about 1.15 am, we arrived at Port Said. It was about two hours later before we had everything unloaded & we set off for the boat, about a mile away, carrying everything we possessed – kit bag, rifle etc & 120 rounds of ammunition. I can tell you we were not sorry to get aboard. About 4 am we had supper – coffee, &
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bread & butter & jam. It was the first meal I had had at a table since leaving Zeitoun over two months ago, and the first butter I had tasted for over 9 weeks. We had a few hours sleep before breakfast but we were out fairly early to have a look at the port & to see what was doing. There is no harbour there as the town is built on the canal, but it is surprising the number of ships they can find room for in the canal. From what we saw of the town as we marched through at night it appeared to be a rather nice little town but it has the same old Egyptian smell. Looking from the boat we could see little else than hotels and advs for various brands of Scotch. The Canal Co’s buildings with blue tiled domes look very well, & right at the N.E. corner of Africa, part way along the breakwater, there is a fine monument of De Lessep (?) who successfully engineered the making of the canal. He is shown
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with one arm extended towards the canal pointing the way for ships to the Eastern seas. We lay all that day in port & while there a water plane flew over us & turned around & settled on the water & skidded back down the canal passing quite close to our boat. I had seen them in the air before but never on the water. As at other Egyptian ports the natives here lose no opportunities of trading with the passengers on the passing boats and soon after daylight they began to come along side with their little boats laden with goods & were soon doing good business with the men onboard. They throw a rope up to the men who put the money in a basket & send it down & draw up their oranges, tobacco, silks or whatever they are buying. While here I bought my first red oranges – blood oranges they call them – they are the usual colour outside but the
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inside is quite red & the juice about the colour of raspberry juice. They don’t look altogether right but there is little or no difference in the taste. All coaling here is done by nigger power, but it is much quicker than you would expect. Coal barges come alongside & run a bit of a gangway onto the ship up which the niggers go in an endless string with baskets of coal on their heads or shoulders. There is no waste time, some of them fill the baskets while the others carry them up, shoot the coal over their heads into the bunkers & run back down another gangway. Of course there is a big crowd of them on the job, perhaps 30 or more on each side of the ship, but the result seems to be quite satisfactory. It was not until about 11 next morning that we put out to sea. So far we have had a lovely calm trip & have not been troubled with submarines but we have about a couple of days to go yet. The boat we are on is one of
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the biggest troopships afloat & is nearly twice as big as the one we left N.Z in. The food is very nice & everything clean & fresh, the only trouble is that when it is so appetizing we could do with a little more than we are getting. Taking it all round we are having a very pleasant trip, the only inconvenience is our lifebelts. We have to wear them every day & all day, & at night we use them as pillows. We will feel quite lost without then when we land. My address will still be 14th Company, Otago Infy Battn, 1st Brigade, N.Z.E.F., G.P.O. Welltn. If you happen to know anyone else coming over here advise them to bring a small atlas with them. On the sea especially there is always something one wants to look up & it is surprising how inaccurate our memories are concerning geographical matters. Other useful things that few men think of taking are a tin opener & a good pair of scissors. Will write again soon.
Love to All
Len
[Written on back of Page 6]
Sending few p.cs under separate cover. I have not seen the Ypres ruins yet, but know the other place well.
