Susan Meyer has transcribed the first page of this letter from her great-uncle, Jock, to his mother.

4th December 1914

PORT SAID

 My Dear Mother,

Just a line to let know we are still alive, I received your letter on Tuesday and was pleased to hear you are all well, we all are keeping well on board ship so far.

We have had a great trip to here, we arrived on the first of December, it was very calm all the journey, one day was a bit rough. We left Albany on the first of November after staying a week and we picked up the New Zealand troops there, there were ten ship loads of them, we were escorted by two Imperial Cruisers “Minotaur” and “Hampshire” and “Sydney” and “Melbourne” and a Japanese Cruiser named “Ibouki”.

It was a great sight to see the fleet leaving Albany they were all in three Divisions and nine boats in each Division, but the novelty soon wore off, there was no more excitement till the tenth of November the “Minotaur” picked up a wireless message from the “Emden” they weren’t long getting in to her tracks then the “Sydney” got into action ……………”standing orders??