Lieutenant Colonel William McKenzie, MC, OBE - Diary - 1914 - 1917 - Part 2

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which schooner they stole & escaped.
The "Empress of Asia" mounted rounds
on the look out for her, but
we did not hear the result yet.
Previous to our going the New Zealand
ships with around [[?3?]] lines left
ahead of us en route for Aden.
We over hauled them all reached
Aden at 6 A.M. on Wednesday 12 hours
ahead of the other lines.
planted competitive Compy [[?]]
1^st h C Cdon Satdy night a fine [[?]]
Sunday services normal. The Dean
gave a xx 40 minutes sermon and
I amah & tacked on the present War.
On Friday morning early we learned
that one of the boats bumped into
another ("shropshire") & knocked two
men overboard, they were however
ultimately picked up. The leading
warship hurried back to ascertain
the cause & I guess there will be a
reprimand for someone. It
was the Benella that picked up the 2
men from the Indian Ocean.
Aden is a barren [[good??looking]]
place with a large harbour protected
by two huge headland Mountains
that runs up into sharp jagged
peaks & between these runs a
low sandy head semicircular
in form, fan our in the distance
is a range of Mountains in
Arabia & away across the
other side of the Gulf can be

19
seen the Mountains of Africa.
We left Aden on Friday morning
after gazing long at its red tiled
soldiers Barracks on one side
& the Camel Man [[??]] [[??]]
further in one is not impressed
with its feasibility for a
lengthy residence there.
We passed into the red sea &
found this weather rather
trying. We had [[??]]
for [[??]] [[?]], but
these many [[?]] [[??]] a/c
of the heat. [[??]] came thro'
on Satdy after that the [[??]]
had to be landed in Cairo -
Egypt for training and other
purposes. Thus we had to set too &
pack, Sunday's Ch Brigade was abandoned.
A number of Indian [[??ports?]]
in addition to Warships & of their
merchantmen lay at anchor
in Aden Harbour while we were
there. Indeed thee were over 60
ships all told.
We passed "Mt Sinai" on Monday
about noon & entered into Gulf
of Suez on Tuesday morning.
The [[Dev??]] celebrated St Andrews
Day (Nov 30th) by a dinner &
was another likely affair.
Noon prayers in 6 seperate places
on this morning. Dead [[??]]
We anchored at Suez for 9 hours &
then set off thro the canals.
 

20
The Canal is closely guarded at
present with 15,000 troops (chiefly
Indians) [[?]] are in Garrison
at Port Said which place we reached
at 12 noon, the Port was exceptionally
busy with Warships, Troopships and
other Merchantmen & Colliers.
The German Prisoners were transferred
from the Dutch &
N.Z. ships to the "H