Chapter 16 – Larry

Many details in this chapter are based on descriptions in Voyage to Gallipoli , by Peter Plowman. Some accounts include:

p. 110 – While on transport ship A14 Europides , Bert Smythe wrote in a letter to his parents “…There is a lot of gambling done here by the men. Nearly everyone on board indulges in it. The other day four men were arrested for having money on them that they could not account for to the satisfaction of the police.”

p. 135 – On the second day of the voyage, Privae J. Keast recorded in his diary “…some of the chaps thought it a good time to play tricks. Just as everybody was quiet, they started by tying a long rope on the hammocks and three or four getting hold of the end of it and pulling for their lives and giving everybody a rough time.”

p. 141 – Later in the voyage, Private Ron Gunn recorded “…did nothing very excitable all day, but at night had great fun putting eggs in chap’s beds. The blankets were in a nice pickle in the morning and enquires were numerous, but the culprits were enquiring as much as anybody and of course were never suspected.”

p. 142 – “The possibility of the convoy being attacked by the Emden, especially at night, was a constant worry, and there were numerous practice drills held on the various ships.”

p. 144 - News of the sinking of the British naval warships HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth by the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisnau, off the Pacific coast of South America, was received by the Australian troop convoy on 7 November 1914. The British ships were lost with all hands. No German ships were lost.

p. 145 – On of the four convoy escort warships, British armoured cruiser HMS Minotaur received orders to leave the convoy and proceed to South Africa. “The sudden disappearance of Minotaur was not particularly welcome to the men on the troopships.”

Australian War Memorial photograph reference A02849 shows a group of Australian soldiers playing Crown and Anchor on HMAT Medic during a WWI voyage. The photo has the following caption: “Men participating in a game of 'Crown and Anchor' on board HMAT Medic, this is a fast game in which any number of players play against a banker, three special dice are used, each marked with a crown, anchor, heart, spade, diamond and club, on which the players bet.”

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C607?image=1

The 1st Battalion War Diary records that on 20.10.14, on board the Afric, that the men of the battalion “Commenced physical training and rifle exercises.”

Charles Bean describes the lead convoy experiences during the Sydney-Emden battle, of 9 November 1914, in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol I. Map 1 shows the convoy configuration and movements of escort ships (p. 104). Following is an extract:

p. 105-106 – “The whole fleet had seen the Sydney leave, and every man knew that she had gone to meet some ship of the enemy…their eyes were always turned far over the glassy plain of the sea to the spot where the Sydney had faded into the distance…Someone said ‘Look at the Ibuki .’ The Japanese ship was moving across the bows of the convoy to join the Melbourne . The smoke was pouring from her funnels more thickly than ever, in rich creases tumbling away and forming a dense background against which the ship almost appeared to nestle. Here decks were naked…Aloft at the peak, planted fair against the black smoke-cloud, from one huge Japanese ensign. As she passed ahead of the fleet she broke from the mainmast a second great ensign of the rising sun, her battle flag. She was moving fast, punching great masses of white out of the dark water and spreading the seas wide of her bluff bows.”