Meanwhile the Regiment had lost the services of some officers from illness. Second-Lieutenant Guy Pedder writes on the 4th of July, evidently from the Suez Canal, though after the manner of the time his letter is dated only “on ship going out”:—
“Four officers have fallen out now—Covell in France, Kennedy at Marseilles, Munster at Port Said, and Wingfield at the next stop.... I wonder where we will get our first letters, &c.; it will be rather interesting. We travel very slowly along here, and stop at each lake as far as I can make out! There are no more submarine guards to be done, thank goodness. I was on eight hours each day, four by day and four by night. Saw a paper yesterday which said we had got the first-line trenches over sixteen mile frontage—wonder if the push is going on as well as was expected.”
July 14.—“I expect the first news you will have got of me will be the cable I sent from Port Said; we haven’t put into harbour since then, but were able to drop some letters to a small boat just opposite Suez, but I don’t know whether you will get that letter. We hope to reach Bombay to-morrow; if so, this letter will just catch the mail, and I will cable to you to-morrow.
“Of course we got out of the danger zone when we got to Port Said. It was very hot, but very interesting in the Canal. Then followed the Gulf, which was calm and dull for four days. Then we got into the Sea, and the so-called terrible monsoon; but it wasn’t a bit terrible, although the ship rolled like anything for four days; lots of fellows were sick, and felt very bad, but I was as fit as anything all the time, and smoked cigars and pipes, &c.
THE “ISLANDA”
“No one knows our final destination up to date, but I fancy we will be in India for a couple of months at least, and then go on. I am looking forward to seeing India awfully, and hope we stay there for a short time at any rate.... I have enjoyed the voyage very much, but am just getting bored with it to-day, and want to see a paper and hear the war news: of course we have had none for over a week. This is a topping ship, but we have come along very slowly to save coal. They feed us very well. We had to run for it once in the Mediterranean, but we did not know it at the time, only guessed. It has been very much too rough to play cricket, but to-day it is much calmer. We’ve had two frightfully heavy rainstorms. Only two horses have died, and both mine are all right. I sang several times after dinner, and on the whole I think the time has flown. I am longing to hear about the Western Front. There is an excellent library on board, and I must have read twenty books, &c.”
Bombay, Royal Bombay Yacht Club—July 17.—“This is an extraordinary place, and awfully pretty by night; Daniell (the Staff Captain) gave a large dinner-party here last night, and very nice it was too. I went to the Cathedral yesterday evening after a very busy day, and this morning I have been rushing round shopping. You hardly see two people dressed alike here. This is a ripping Club, and we are all honorary members, Indian Expeditionary Force (D). To-day’s paper tells us a little about the part played by what would have been us in the West!”
The hope of staying a short time and seeing India was not to be fulfilled. The state of affairs in Mesopotamia admitted of no delay, and it was soon known that the Regiment was to embark at once for Basra. It was to be carried in two vessels, the Islanda and Chilka, the former taking “A” and “D” Squadrons, less one troop of “D,” under Captain Eve, and the latter the Headquarters and remainder of the Regiment under Colonel Richardson.
By the 19th of July both ships had sailed.