War in the Garden of Eden | Page 2

conditions in order to
attempt the nonstop transatlantic flight. Among his poems stands out
the "Prayer of Empire," which, oddly enough, the former German
Emperor greatly admired, ordering it distributed throughout the
imperial navy! The Kaiser's feelings toward the admiral have suffered
an abrupt change, but they would have been even more hostile had
England profited by his warnings:
"There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong, If the
people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong."
After four or five most agreeable days aboard the Queen the word came
to embark, and I was duly transferred to the Saxon, an old Union Castle
liner that was to run us straight through to Busra.

As we steamed out of the harbor we were joined by two diminutive
Japanese destroyers which were to convoy us. The menace of the
submarine being particularly felt in the Adriatic, the transports travelled
only by night during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman it was
incomprehensible how it was possible for us to pursue our zigzag
course in the inky blackness and avoid collisions, particularly when it
was borne in mind that our ship was English and our convoyers were
Japanese. During the afternoon we were drilled in the method of
abandoning ship, and I was put in charge of a lifeboat and a certain
section of the ropes that were to be used in our descent over the side
into the water. Between twelve and one o'clock that night we were
awakened by three blasts, the preconcerted danger-signal. Slipping into
my life-jacket, I groped my way to my station on deck. The men were
filing up in perfect order and with no show of excitement. A ship's
officer passed and said he had heard that we had been torpedoed and
were taking in water. For fifteen or twenty minutes we knew nothing
further. A Scotch captain who had charge of the next boat to me came
over and whispered: "It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen a rat
run out along the ropes into my boat!" That particular rat had not been
properly brought up, for shortly afterward we were told that we were
not sinking. We had been rammed amidships by one of the escorting
destroyers, but the breach was above the water-line. We heard later that
the destroyer, though badly smashed up, managed to make land in
safety.
We laid up two days in a harbor on the Albanian coast, spending the
time pleasantly enough in swimming and sailing, while we waited for a
new escort. Another night's run put us in Navarino Bay. The
grandfather of Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers on board,
commanded the Allied forces in the famous battle fought here in 1827,
when the Turkish fleet was vanquished and the independence of Greece
assured.
Several days more brought us to Port Said, and after a short delay we
pushed on through the canal and into the Red Sea. It was August, and
when one talks of the Red Sea in August there is no further need for
comment. The Saxon had not been built for the tropics. She had no fans,

nor ventilating system such as we have on the United Fruit boats. Some
unusually intelligent stokers had deserted at Port Said, and as we were
in consequence short-handed, it was suggested that any volunteers
would be given a try. Finch Hatton and I felt that our years in the
tropics should qualify us, and that the exercise would improve our
dispositions. We got the exercise. Never have I felt anything as hot, and
I have spent August in Yuma, Arizona, and been in Italian Somaliland
and the Amazon Valley. The shovels and the handles of the
wheelbarrows blistered our bands.
[Illustration: Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting. Inset,
showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries.]
We had a number of cases of heat-stroke, and the hospital facilities on a
crowded transport can never be all that might be desired. The first
military burial at sea was deeply impressive. There was a lane of
Tommies drawn up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed; the
short, classic burial service was read, and the body, wrapped in the
Union Jack, slid down over the stern of the ship. Then the bugles rang
out in the haunting, mournful strains of the "Last Post," and the service
ended with all singing "Abide With Me."
We sweltered along down the Red Sea and around into the Indian
Ocean. We wished to call at Aden in order to disembark some of our
sick, but were ordered to continue on without touching. Our duties
were light, and we spent the time playing cards and reading. The
Tommies played "house"