“It’s a perfectly glorious evening…now there are only cool shadows, with a dead flat & oily sea & pale blue hills, very broken, in the distance.”
RI MS RCB/A/10
August 4th 1915 to Gwendoline Bragg
Robert records his location as ‘at anchor’. At this point the transport was still in the harbour of Moudros on the island of Lemnos, which they had reached on 1st August. They stayed at Lemnos for about a week and there is no indication that they went ashore, this is probably why the horses are sent along later.
As in the camp at Alexandria, there seems to be nothing to do except wait for orders but Robert obviously makes the best of it.
At Anchor
August 4th 1915
Dear Mum
I have just heard that the mail bag closes to-night so I must hurry up & get off a letter off to you. We had a very comfy trip over from Alexandria and for the last four days we have been lying at anchor in this harbour, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Unfortunately there isn’t much tide here so the harbour is pretty foul as it is absolutely crammed with shipping. However we lump it & bathe with great vigour. It has been awfully jolly having these few days with absolutely nothing to do.
We have been doing quite a lot of signalling during this time & are getting much better. We try & get the messages between the warships but as they send at about 20 words a minute, you can imagine we don’t have much luck. Its awfully jolly at nights, Cameron, an awfully nice fellow in “B” Battery & I get up onto a small signalling desk right above the ship & try to read the morse flash lamp signals.
We took out one of the life boats today & tried to row to some place where the water was moderately clean. We got some good exercise & a bathe, but no clean water though we went far enough in all conscience.
What is Bill doing now. I wrote to Bill last mail, I don’t know whether he got it or not. We have only had one mail so far. I wish we could get another, there is a chance of one coming along with our horses. It’s a perfectly glorious evening, the sun has just set just like it did in Australia & now there are only cool shadows, with a dead flat & oily sea & pale blue hills, very broken, in the distance.
Now I must stop as I have to censor a large pile of letters befor[e] mine.
Cheer Oh.
Your loving Son
Bob.
Photos courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. RI MS RCB/A/10
Notes and General Information
Lemnos was taken by Greece from the Ottomans in 1912 during the first Balkan War and the harbour at Moudros (where Robert’s ship was anchored) was intended to be the base from which the Allied forces launched their attack on the Dardanelles. However, when the limited resources made this difficult, the main bases shifted to Egypt and the island seems to have been used as a way station instead. Greece at this point was theoretically neutral but allowed the use of the harbour.
As can be seen in this image the harbour was crammed full of warships and troop ships, waiting to be called into action.
The ships were sent onto Gallipoli as part of the August Offensive — the last major attempt to take the peninsular. This attack began with landings on the 6th August, the 11th Division landed in stages over the next few days as reinforcements.
