After two or three days’ rest a train journey of a day took us to another town called Drama, which is in Greece; from there we went to Salonica, where 1 was handed over first to the American Consul and then to the British Consul, who passed me on to the military authorities. The British commander-in-chief asked me some questions about officers who were prisoners of war, and so on, and I told him what I could.
TURKISH PRISONERS MARCHING DOWN A GULLY IN GALLIPOLI.]
For a fortnight after that I was in a hospital ship in the bay, the _Grantully Castle_, happy and well looked after; then we went to Lemnos and on to Alexandria, where I had another spell in hospital--four days. Then it was really a case of homeward bound, for I was put on board the _Ghurka_ on November 7, and we sailed for Southampton. On board the _Ghurka_ we had concerts and a good time until the 19th, when we reached Southampton. I went to St. Mark’s Military Hospital, Chelsea, then came to this wonderful place, St. Dunstan’s Hostel, which Mr. C. Arthur Pearson founded, and where I am very happy and learning poultry farming.
[Just after the New Year, 1915, had broken the British battleship _Formidable_, successor of the famous ship with which the name of the gallant Rodney is so closely associated, was lost while steering westward in the Channel. In the official announcement it was stated that the cause of her loss was either mine or torpedo, but it was not known which. Later, however, it was stated in the House of Lords that she had been twice torpedoed. The _Formidable_ was a pre-Dreadnought of 15,000 tons and 15,000 horse-power. In herself she was not a serious loss; but she carried a crew of between 700 and 800 men, and of these only 201 were saved. Once more the unconquerable spirit of British seamen was shown, as will be seen from this story of the only survivor of his watch--William Edward Francis, who was a stoker in the lost battleship.]
I had what I take to be a narrow escape of being lost when the three cruisers were torpedoed in the North Sea.
I had been called up from the Royal Naval Reserve and drafted to the _Cressy_, which, with her sister ships the _Hogue_ and _Aboukir_, was lost; but almost at the last moment I was transferred, with a chum, to another ship.