At 6.30 we “fell in” in two ranks outside the College, and our messmates gave us a parting cheer as we marched off down to Dartmouth. Here we had a sort of triumphal progress through crowds of cheering townsfolk to the quay. Embarked on the Mew we were quickly ferried across to the station, where a long train was in waiting. Ten of us, who had been appointed to the same ship, secured two carriages adjoining one another, and then scrambled hurriedly to the bookstalls for newspapers, magazines, and cigarettes. These secured, we took our seats and shortly afterwards the train drew out of the station, and our long journey had begun.
Thus it was that, three weeks before my fifteenth birthday, I went to war!
The journey to Chatham was likely to be long and tedious. After all the excitement of the last few hours a reaction soon set in and we longed for sleep, so we settled ourselves as best we might on the floor, on the seats, and even on the racks.
At first I shared a seat with another cadet, sitting feet to feet and resting our backs against the windows; but this position did not prove very conducive to slumber, and at 1 o’clock I changed places with the boy in the rack. This was little better, for I found it awfully narrow, and whenever I raised my head even an inch or two, bump it went against the ceiling of the carriage.
At 2 a.m. I changed round again and tried the floor, where I managed to get an hour and a half’s broken sleep till 3.30, when we arrived at Chatham.
Three-thirty a.m. is a horrid hour, chilly and shivery even on an August night. The train drew up at a place where the lines ran along the road close to the Royal Naval Barracks.
Yawning, and trying to rub the sleepiness out of our eyes, we proceeded to drag our chests out of the luggage vans and pile them on the road, while the officer in charge of us went to find out what arrangements had been made for getting us to our ships.
In about twenty minutes he returned with another officer and informed us that none of the ships in question were then at Chatham, and we would have to stay at the barracks until further instructions were received.
For the moment enthusiasm had vanished. We were tired and hungry, and, after the perfection of clockwork routine to which we had been accustomed, this “war” seemed a muddlesome business. However, there was no good grousing. We left our chests in the road and proceeded to the barracks, where we were provided with hammocks and told to spread them in the gymnasium. This done, we took off our boots, coats, and trousers and were soon fast asleep.