Of course, things looked a bit brighter in the morning—they always do. We were called at 7.30, told to dress and wash in the washing-place just outside the gym., and to lash up our hammocks and stow them away, after which we would be shown the way to the officers’ mess.
Lashing up the hammocks was a job that took some time to accomplish, since it was one in which none of us was particularly proficient, and, moreover, there was no place to sling them. I eventually managed mine by lashing the head to the wall bars while I got a friend to hold the foot, which done, I performed the same office for him, and then we went to the officers’ mess for breakfast. It was Sunday, so in the forenoon we went to service in the Naval Chapel. Here we had to listen to a most lugubrious sermon from a parson who seemed under the impression that we should all be at the bottom of the sea within six months, and had better prepare ourselves accordingly! Of the note, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, which, however hackneyed, cannot fail to bring courage to those setting out to battle, there was not the faintest echo, so the whole thing was in no wise calculated to raise our spirits.
This depressing episode ended, we fell in outside the barracks and were marched off to lunch.
We spent the afternoon exploring the vicinity, and I, with two friends, climbed up to the roof of a sort of tower, where we indulged in forbidden but soothing cigarettes.
That night we again slept in the gym., and next morning we were considerably annoyed to find that we should not be allowed to take our chests to sea. We were given canvas kit-bags, into which we had to cram as many necessaries as they would hold; but they certainly seemed, and eventually proved to be, most inadequate provision for a naval campaign of indefinite length, conducted in climatic conditions varying from tropical to semi-arctic.
The rest of that day was uneventful and rather boring. We wrote letters home and indulged in more surreptitious smoking: the latter with somewhat disastrous results, for one of our number having rashly embarked on a pipe, was speedily overtaken by rebellion from within, and further, our Lieutenant, having detected us in this breach of Naval Regulations, threatened us with the direst penalties if we did not mend our ways.
Bright and early next morning (Tuesday the 4th of August) we were informed that half our number were to proceed to Devonport to join our ships; so at 9 o’clock we marched down to the station to set out on yet another long and weary train-journey. We had to change at Paddington, and arrived at Devonport at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, considerably bucked up by the thought that at last we should be in real war-ships, and, as genuine, though very junior, officers of His Majesty’s Navy, be privileged to play our small part in what, even then, we dimly realised would be the greatest war in the history of our nation.
From the station we marched through the town and embarked on an Admiralty tug, which took us to the various ships to which we had been appointed. Our batch was the last to reach its destination, but eventually the tug drew alongside the gangway of H.M.S.“——” and was secured there by ropes.