HLI Chronicle 1921 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE. 7
I am pleased that it is at last settled. But,
before the ink of the foregoing lines are dry,
I am now once again burdened with the
official date, and we sail on the "Prince
Ludwig " on the 17th November. Splendid!
The Bay is quite calm between the 21st and
28th of November, so we are going to be
awfully lucky this time in our voyage, but
I think the Practical Joke Department is
arranging the final voyage to our Cook's
Tourist excursion. The" Ludwig" sails on
the 17th-but not with us! But how pleasing
to us all to know that we go home on our dear
.old" Pride of the Atlantic," the" Teutonic,"
on the 2300 November. Strath, has told me
that the "Med." is always calm between
October and March, and that the Bay is never
very rough till Mayor June, so we are all in
high glee at our prospects, and we are now
again preparing for the postponement of our
sailing on the 23rd owing to the coal strike.
Once again we are at zero, because we do
not sail till 29th November, which move, I
am sorry to say, has just been cancelled owing
to the Bolshevic troops having captured an
oil-well in Batum. We have no idea when
we are going to sail, all the " Old Moore's"
being thoroughly exasperated at their prophecies
and official dates being cancelled one
after another, but still, why should we be in
a hurry to get to the Emerald Isle 1 We are
fine here, with plenty of sport, so our tour
has been short but enjoyable. There's an old
saying" Join the Army and see the world,"
with its more modern rendering of " Join the
RLC. and see the next," but soldiers don't
care, do they, George?
On board H.M. T. "Teutonic" we have
sailed. I suppose the reason why we sailed
on the 3rd December was because nobody
guessed this date. We are on the same old
vessel which brought us out, 80 let's hope
she will be a bit more sociable on the return
trip. We had three very enjoyable days at
Mustapha Rest Camp. Our Mess was one and
all accommodated for meals, etc., in the Mess
of the Notts and Derby's. It is impossible
for me to express our measure of appreciation
for all the Forester's did for us. They made
us thoroughly at home, and their Mess was
laid open to us. Their hOlilpitality knew no
bounds; we played them at football, and they
arranged a concert for our benefit (I enclose
a separate account of sll-me). ; We have. now
said good-bye to the land of Pharaoh, which
is like all foreign countries, aI\d. the best yiew
of which one gets from the stern of a ship!
We embarked at midday on the Srd, after
saying au revoir to the Class n., whom we
did not expect to see till the end of the voyage,
but occasionally we had the mortifying conversation
of what their menu of six courses
consisted. But they had their own troubles
to contend with, the chief one being the making
out of the menu card in French. The second
day out saw one notable event, which caused
much gratification, Pipe-Major Johnstone
winning the" sweep" on the day's run. This
stroke of good fortune did not turn his head
in the least, but the large cigar I saw him
. smoking in the saloon at night may have done
what his good fortune failed to do !
The third and fourth days saw a good many
of us either sick or afraid of being sick. Nobody
seemed exempt, and I have a faint idea that
when I reported for a very" important" duty,
the RS.M. showed signs of what turmoil the
evolutions of the' White. Star submarine were
doing internally. On the fifth day most of
the Mess attended a concert given by a party
returning from Constantinople. They did
their best, but! can quite understand now why
the Turks took so long to sign the Peace
Treaty! The sixth day brought us to Malta,
where "C" Company's headquarters made
very heavy purchases. We also had a grand
view of the" Iron Duke," Admiral Beatty's
old Flag Ship. Sgt. Richardson was quite at
home in the harbour, and had quite an ani~
mated conversation with the islanders in their
native tongue. The seventh day saw Johnny
Milne winning the" sweep." This was rather
a rough day, and Stl'athdee lashed himself
to the Flying Bridge! The morning of the
eighth day gave us a glimpse of some solid
object on the "port" beam (that's the left
side looking towards the sharp end I). A long
discussion was abruptly terminated by Sgt.
Noble exclaiming it was a breakwater, Johnny's
atlas being again wrong in designating it as
the Algerian coast! The next notable event
was the winning of the "sweep" by Sgt.
Milne, an event which he repeated the following
day, when he won the "Steerage" sweep.
The twelfth brought us a heavy snowstorm,
and thereby caused us to slacken speed and
allow Sgt. Coombes to win the sweep, which,
by this time, had almost reached the dimensions
of the Calcutta Sweep! Many thanks
are due to "Johnny Michaelidides" for the
workmanlike way in which he conducted
these sweepstakes, and I hope his next voyage
will see -him winning one for himself., .'
F. W.