Diary transcript of Reginald Harriman Heywood, 1918-1919 - Part 12

345 miles to day is another slight improvement, but we're

still behind the game.

5.6.19  Quite a roll on to day, and for the first time.

Ernie Ryland informs me it's a ground swell. As we're about

300 miles from land I suppose Ernie knows all about it. Ernie

comes from Swan Hill, so that probably explains all about it.

It's lovely weather though, and the swell didn't take any way

off as we ticked off another 350.

6.6.19  This evening the stewards gave us a concert in the

saloon, and though some of the jokes were a bit terse it was

altogether a good effort. The troupe possesses some real

talent and the bathroom steward, J.L. Harrison, is extra good.

He gave us amongst other things C.J. Dennis's "Kid". Dennis

should write something extra good one of these days.

7.6.19  At 10.30 this evening we dropped our old muck

scrape in Table Bay after averaging 345 3⁄4 miles for 18 days,

not a bad run. The next run of 18 3⁄4 days ought to be interesting.

Expect will pull into Capetown in the morning - with a

bit of luck will get ashore.

8.6.19  Barged into the docks about breakfast time, and

after the apparently necessary amount of humbugging about

went ashore after lunch. It wasn't a bad idea to get away

eith either, as some hundreds of black fiends started coaling and

each one seemed obsessed with the idea of making as much

noise and dust as possible, rendering life on board highly

unpleasant.

Capetown is a wonderfully dead place and on Sunday is

remarkable. However it doesn't lack anything on the score of

scenery and a joy ride we had out through Camp's Bay to Hout

Bay and back via the Rondebach and Rhodes Memorial is very

lovely. We dined at the Cadarga Hotel and returned at a respectable hour.

9.6.19  Went ashore again - don't know what for. but the

black fiends continued to raise an indescribable sort of a

little hell. We visited the City Club and then mooched about

acquiring a weird collection of Kaffir bangles, hippo hide and

other more or less useless material.

I couldn't even raise a little enthusiasm over the pier,

of which all the Capetownians are so proud. The Port Melbourne 

pier seems the only one that interests me and as my

companion seemed rightly and properly fed up with me returned

to the Nestor for dinner.

10.6.19

10.6.19  The Osterley pulled in alonside us this morn: and

for the first time brought to me doubts of my native land.

She carried some 1,000 odd wives of Members of the A.I.F.,

and I should think about a similar number of their offspring.

To say the least of it there seemed to be a lack of judgment

and taste, but on inquiry I was relieved to find only 2% of

the A.I.F. married abroad. Personally I should think that

Australian girls are lucky that men with such singular lack

of taste were married abroad, but then it takes all sorts to

make a world and it's a good job perhaps that our tastes

aren't all in the same class, besides there are plenty of old

maids in the world already. They say all is fair in love and

war and when we get both at the sametime we must expect something startling.

Later in the morning there was fresh excitement with the

arrival of the Edouard Woermann with a contingent of repatriated

S.Africans. We went ashore and added Calabash pipes to

our store of bric-a-brac and then returned in the evening

just in time to see the Osterley departing for Durban with

the "Merry Wives".

11.6.19  Now our heads are turned for home as we pulled out

from Cape town at 7.30 this morn: travelling past the Cape of

Good Hope and for some distance along the Coast. All the

Southern coast is very mountainous and this morning Gertrude

Page's purple hills and mists were very much in evidence. We

carved out 63 miles by midday, so that isn't a bad start.

12,13 and 14.6.19  Three days of heavy weather steadily increasing

with the days have rendered things hardly so pleasant and

monotony is the order of the day. I've got a job assisting

the Q.M., but unfortunately it doesn't take up much time.

We're still satisfied that the Nestor is a great sea boat

but even at that sometimes Steve here and I wonder whether

our things are hanging on the wall or the ceiling. She hasn't

got an ounce of cargo in her and can't manage much over 300

miles in this sea.

15.6.19  Sunday all day to day but owing to an ingenious

little alteration to the clocks Steve and I missed the

padre's little turn out in the smoke room. However, we had a 

bit of a rough washing and sewing bee in the cabin improving

the shining hour generally. Still very rough.

16.6.19  328 miles up till midday brought our total run from

Capetown to 1670 miles, so with ordinary luck and weather a

little better than this we should be home and dried in another 

fortnight.

The

The weather still being unpropitious Steve and I had to

confine our attention to a working bee in the cabin and bridge

with Ken and Nobby Clark. We've got to that stage where one

soils things just for the pleasure of polishing them again.

17.6.19  Another day's march nearer home, and it's getting

pretty near time to wonder what sort of a welcome there will

be for us. Personally I hope we'll slip in very unostentatiously

because there's something we mustn't rub in. We

mustn't forget that all the best men are dead, and that there

isn't any rejoicing down at the pier for their mothers and

fathers and wives and sweethearts. One thing that I admired

perhaps above all others about the Digger was the quiet

way he celebrated the signing of the Armistice. There was of

course the deep satisfaction, but everywhere was the same

feeling "It's a pity old so-and-so wasn't here to see this"

18.6.19  The weather seems to be moderating a little, and it

will certainly be a relief to be out of these "roaring forties" 

or wherever we are. We could at least manage a few laps

up on the boat deck to day.

Only a very moderate run to day, 307 miles, but even at

that we ran past the S.S.Irishman, which left Capetown as we

pulled in. She is bound for Australia too with troops, one

of a great procession. There must be a pretty nearly continuous 

string, and at present we are in touch with the Helnan,

Osterley, Ypiranga, Ascanius, Irishman and Anchises.

19.6.19  Now we're getting a bit more of decent weather of

course something must go wrong with the engines to day and

we were held up for three hours, bringing our run down to 285.

That reminds me of what wonderful things these big engines

are, the way they pound away week after week, fair weather and 

foul. It is some corrosive substance in the condenser pipes

that holds us up.

20.6.19  Quite a buzz of excitement to day when we managed

to to rake up enough pace to overhaul a big sailing ship. Not

for mine, a trip in an old wind-jammer - it's bad enough on a

big roomy ship like this for only six weeks.

Whoops! to night we are nagging away at Perth on the wireless.

21.6.19  Cold wet and rough weather kept us down below all

day and added, if possible, to the somnolence of the occasion -

Port Melbourne will look pretty good to me.
This

77 This

This evening we went for a bit of a tour round the engine 

room and stokehold. Those wonderful big engines have a

great fascination for me,and I might add that I am one of

those people who was meant to live with a spanner and a perpetual 

smell of oil about them, but somehow the destinations

got mixed.

22.6.19  Arose betimes and attended the Padre's early morning 

show in the drawing room. For a sin-shifter this one

we've got on the Nestor is quite the nicest I have met.

Steve and I put in the rest of the day coursing tins

up and down the cabin and playing bridge. It's been terribly 

rough to day and the old packet rolled to some dizzy

angles which rendered the tin coursing possible.

23.6.19  Sent some wires to Melbourne to day via Perth - must

have a pretty powerful Marconi installation on board as we're

a good 800 miles out from Perth. To day has been the roughest

day since we left Liverpool/and tin coursing was the popular

pastime with Steve and me. In the evening we attended

a lecture on Socialism, Anarchism and several other "Isms" by

one, Dr Mills, who is a fine speaker.

24.6.19  We've totted up 4155 miles now, and after most satisfactorily

calculating on arriving at Prt Melbourne on Monday

the 30th at daylight someone has decided that we should call

in at Adelaide. However I/believe that with any luck at all

we will be there only a few hours, and reach Melbourne on

Tuesday, July the 1st.

25, 26 and 27.6.19 Three days of more or less ups and downs - 

one day rough and the next fair and punctuated with much 

bridge.

The Stewards department gave us another concert, introducing

the famous original Jazz band from Jazzonia.  Dr Mills

completed his lecture on Syndacilism, Bolshevism and the rest

of the "isms", including Guild Socialism, and I think it's time

the old stick-in-the-mud class with all the cash recognise

that sooner or later there's going to be a revolution of

some kind.  I might add that my sympathies are all or nearly

all with the working class, but it's generally their leaders

that make them impossible.

A Fancy Dress ball was an item worth mentioning; some of

the dresses were wonderful indeed.

It's hard to realise that the checkered, plaided, mottled

pied and dappled career of the A.I.F. is nearly run.

28.6.19  A lovely fine day for a change, and we're making for

Adelaide in fine style. Down at the foot of the opposite

page

to confine our attention being unpropitious Steve and I had

page I've mentioned the A.I.F. In case you don't know who

they are or were. This extract from the London Graphic is

quoted and can speak for itself -
                                         Casualty List
                                     O.A.S.     Dead     Missing    Wounded     Total
Australia                  330,000        54,524       3401     232,222         88

Canada                   400,000        50,334       8245      152,779        53
N. Zealand                99,650        14,463         371        37,840        53
France                           '          1,013,000 312,300      446,300        40,

South Africa                                   6,633       1637        11,661

India                                            29,762      12381        59296

Bristish Navy                               33, 361      1222           5183

Bristish (France)                        559,612   326,697   1,833,345

    "       (Italy 7 Africa)                  10,954       2.691        14,215
    "       (Dardnelles)                     42,157     10,516        95,394
    "       (Mesopotamia etc)           47,001     19,243        89.198 ?
Merchant Service                         14,661       3,295
Total Empire losses 3,107,700
(December 14, 1918.

29.6.19  In a taste of lovely winter weather we dropped the

mud pick off Adelaide soon after midday. It was intended to

hop in and stay only long enough to drop some 500 troops, but

owing to a malady affecting the local health authorities and

to which may be ascribed a quality hitherto totally unrecognized

by the most advanced medical science, we were kept humbugging

about with thermometers and things all afternoon, and

it was nearly midnight before we were alongside and too late

to disembark the truppen - spent most of the day in profane

silence

silence.

30.6.19  Swish! we're past the distance now and going

easily, leaving the Outer Harbour about one o'clock, eight 

hours behind the Port Napier, to whom we gave eight days

start from Liverpool.

It's a great scene this disembarking and full of interest,

especially for those who are likely to come in for their

issue in a day or two. Much of the excitement at Adelaide

was caused by one, Sammy Lund, who meets all the boatts with

a megaphone, a large Australian flag, and an unlimited supply

of oratory. Locally he's known by some as the village idiot, 

but he causes much merriment even amongst the best truppen.

31.6.19  And say, what's wrong with coming back to your own

little town. A while ago, the Otway light blinked out its

welcome across the leagues of Southern Ocean. Away in the

distance the Schanck is bob-bobbing, and closer, mush closer,

the Lonsdale and the 'Cliff' lights are beckoning. Even the

old Popė's Eye is still attending tho his particular line, and

the the pilot - same old pilot - is fixing up the Port Napier

only a stone's throw away. - It's all good.

The only part of the war that I'd go through again is

this coming home. It hasn't been such a bad old war in some

ways, though what made it possible was the fellows one met - 

the best of the best. I haven't forgotten that on Augst 8th

after five months of continuous fighting they with the Canadians

made the first big break in Fritz's line - and it never

mended.

Besides, if you only take the trouble to look for it, 

a golden thread of humour runs through the sombre warp and

woof of life, and of "Hope which outwears the accidents of

life and reaches with tremulous hand beyond the grave and

death".

All the world will be waiting for us on the pier tomorrow,

but first there are the quarantine officials..

Judging by Adelaide experiences we may claim for the

medicos a guilelessness of soul that would insult an Arcadian

shepherd, but suffering from red tapeworms, as they do, one

might just as well conduct a controversy regarding naval

strategy with Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square.

We are through the Heads now and have dropped anchor

off portsea where we await the said officials. The only thing

now is to hope that someone will see that the Peace conditions

will be carried out. The A.I.F. has done its share in

the cause of Freedom.

To

 

To thee, old   Cause.

Thou peerless, passionate good cause.

Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea,

Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands,

After a strange, sad war, great war for Thee.

I think all war through time was really fought

And ever will be really fought for thee

These chants for Thee, the eternal march of Thee'

Ac. Ac. Ac.

[*1373

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PR04361.