A Sea Voyage to the Dardanelles

Cunard Line RMS Franconia [Wikimedia]

Sunday 28th March 1915: In a letter home on 25th February Captain John Longuet-Higgins mentioned that his brother Kenneth was about to set off for service abroad. While his brother is in hospital recovering from a wound received at Neuve Chapelle Acting Lieutenant Kenneth Longuet-Higgins has been on board the Cunard ship RMS Franconia[1] sailing to the Dardanelles, where the Ottoman forces are under naval bombardment. He has been keeping his mother informed of his progress. 

4th March

There is in me a feeling of profound thankfulness, which is bursting to express itself somehow. Hence this letter. For are we not passing at this moment the St Vincent light and shan’t we pass Gib at midnight, having come right through the Bay and found it calmer than I’ve seen the river at Turvey sometimes? Everything in this ship is wonderful, especially the food. Beastly bad training for the bully beef to come, but still it isn’t our fault.

7th March

The weather has been absolutely glorious. We passed Gib at night and did not put in there so we missed seeing the Rock which was rather a pity. But all yesterday we were running in sight of land, the most glorious mountains, quite blue they looked. We fetched up here about lunch-time today. Malta looks rather a funny place, rather like the models of Jerusalem you see at SPCK exhibition stands. By the way I don’t think I shall ever approve of the Daylight Saving Bill. They play awful pranks with the clock here and on two occasions I have had to wait an extra hour for my lunch and on two other occasions I have found myself half an hour late for breakfast. That kind of thing won’t do, you know, will it?

10th March

We are now at sea again having left Malta yesterday. We were allowed leave on Monday afternoon and I went ashore. We saw all the sights. There have been sports on board this afternoon and I’ve come in here (the library-writing room) to more or less recover from hysterics, a complaint the whole ship’s company was suffering from half an hour ago.

14th March

 Here’s Sunday and we’re still on board this palace, and likely to remain here so far as I can see, though we may possibly, some of us, land and camp on this island, [2] where we are in harbour now along with some warships and a good many transports. By jove, it is ripping scenery and the weather is grand. We came up right through the archipelago with land all round you sometimes. There are mountains all round us now, some of them snow-capped.

21 March

We are getting jolly sick of this ship, as we haven’t been able to land more than once or twice, as it has been too choppy for the boats. There is no landing place of any sort you know, and last time we went ashore it was a bit of a scream. To start with they dished us out with a flat-bottomed canvas concern instead of one of the ordinary ships life boats. We got the four guns on board all right, and then all the men. Off we pushed and the fun began. It was quite a stiff wind and we made pretty bad going in our old tub. After about an hour pulling we got quite close in and then blowed if a squall didn’t catch us, blow us right out of our course, and biff, we went on a rock. We managed to push off but got blown hopelessly down wind and it was practically impossible to beat up again, being overloaded. Then the oars began to break, and finally one of the ship’s life boats put out and took us all on board. [3]

Source: Letters of Kenneth Longuet-Higgins. HG12/10/152-156

---

[1] The Franconia was sunk by a U-Boat 195 east of Malta on 4th October 1916, with the loss of 12 out of 316 crew members.

[2] Lemnos

[3] Acting Lieutenant Kenneth A L Longuet-Higgins R.M. died of wounds on 5th May 1915, aged just 18.

Mrs Chaldecott’s Sea Voyage Continues

Telegram from Evelyn Beatrice Chaldecott [Z186/13]

Wednesday 27th January 1915: Mrs Evelyn Beatrice Chaldecott has sent more news of her sea voyage to India to her mother in Bedford. They had a rough crossing of the Bay of Biscay during which she and her four year old son Gilbert were both sick as the ship “pitched and rolled and then gave horrid corkscrew motions”; mercifully the French governess was fine and looked after both of them and also the little girl in the next cabin whose nurse and grandmother were both ill and whose mother had a small baby to care for. Poor little Gilbert had a pain and whimpered “I wish there was no sea and no boats”. The weather had since improved and they were able to spend time on deck. Except for the early dinner and the shortage of space in the saloon she does not mind being second class on such a luxurious boat. The food is quite good and the cabins are better than first class on the City Line. There is a large fan in their cabin free of charge, which normally cost a guinea extra.

On Sunday 10th they stopped at Malta from 8am until 3pm and were all able to go ashore. They drove out to some gardens and saw orange and lemon groves. As she did not want to take Gilbert among the crowds they stayed inside a “horrid little carriage without springs” and found Malta disappointing – “bare and brown and dusty”. As passengers have left the ship there are plenty of empty cabins so Mademoiselle Coller was given a two-berth cabin of her own and she and Gilbert had their cabin to themselves. They received Marconi News each day but no casualty lists. She hopes they “are not very awful”.

As the journey progressed Mrs Chaldecott made an “awful discovery”. At first she had thought that the governess was asking for a little brandy each day to ward off seasickness but the woman’s behaviour increasingly aroused her suspicions. After Mademoiselle got her own cabin things “went on more smoothly” until the Wednesday before they landed when her temper and rudeness were intolerable. She discovered from the chief steward that the governess had bought three bottles of brandy, various other drinks, and the stewardess took a bottle of beer to her cabin each night. For final confirmation she took the ship’s doctor to the woman’s cabin. “She knew she was caught and was simply furious, sobbed and cried and said I was very unkind and told all sorts of lies … He said of course she had been drinking heavily and was evidently an old hand and he fancied she took drugs too”. When they arrived at Bombay on 22nd January she was obliged to send Mademoiselle Coller home by the next boat, the Arabia which left the following day.

Source: Letters from Evelyn Beatrice Chaldecott to Mrs Cochrane-Forster, Z186/10-14

A Sea Voyage

S.S. Kaiser-i-Hind [Z186/5]

Tuesday 5th January 1915: Mrs Cochrane-Forster of 20 Kimbolton Road, Bedford has received letters from her daughter Bee who sailed for India with her four year old son Gilbert and a French governess Mademoiselle L. Coller.[1] They left London on the P and O vessel S.S. Kaiser-i-Hind on Saturday 2nd January, travelling second class. She says there a large number of sailors on board the ship travelling to Gibraltar; these are also travelling second class apart from the officers who are in first. As a result the small second class saloon is rather overcrowded, though she anticipates matters will improve once it is warm enough to sit on deck.

On the first night the ship anchored off Southend and the passengers were instructed to draw the curtains over the portholes. On Sunday night they anchored at Plymouth, where she was able to have the letters taken ashore. The food on board is quite good, though the children’s breakfast is at the early hour of 7.30 and the adult passengers dine at the “awful hour” of 6.30, which leaves both Mrs Chaldecott and the governess hungry and struggling to sleep. Gilbert, fortunately, is sleeping well. Both Gilbert and Mademoiselle are fine but she is suffering from some motion sickness, though she is all right “if I lie down a good deal”. Fortunately Mademoiselle “really is being a brick” and is taking good care of the little boy.

They have seen some wrecks from the terrible gales and a submarine quite close. On one occasion they were stopped by a government boat. She was told by a sailor that the mine field is altered each night, so the pilots have to be told the safe channel every day. Gilbert has made friends with two little boys who are travelling to Egypt with their baby sister to rejoin their parents, and with a little girl travelling with her mother. There is plenty of deck space for the children’s games and Bee finds it “a very fine boat”. She was anxious for a time as she was unable to track down the case of milk she had brought with her, but it eventually turned up in the butcher’s refrigerator.

Source: Letters from Evelyn Beatrice Chaldecott to Mrs Cochrane-Forster, Z186/6-7

---

[1] Mrs Evelyn Beatrice Chaldecott was the wife of Captain William Henry Chaldecott of the Royal Engineers. In the letter the governess is called Mlle Collins, but the ship’s passenger list gives her name as Coller.

Halt! Who Goes There?

Shire Hall, St Paul's Square, Bedford [Z1306/10/58/8]

Saturday 21st November 1914: A military Court of Enquiry was held at Shire Hall, Bedford, this morning to deal with reports of abusive behaviour to Special Constables. Mr G.H.Soper complained that he had been patrolling with two other constables between Bedford and Astwood on 7th November when they met Alfred William White of Turvey driving a pony cart with two women. Mr White refused to pull up when challenged. Mr W S Brocklehurst took hold of the pony’s bridle and Mr White became very abusive, complaining they had no right to take hold of his pony and stop him. Mr White, however, stated that he had been along the same road several times without being stopped by the constables. Thinking these were the same men, and having told them he was “White of Turvey” he did not understand why they did not allow him to pass. He denied being abusive and was supported by his wife and daughter. Evidence was given that this was not the first time that Mr White had caused trouble for the special constables.

Colonel Sturges, the presiding officer, had no doubt that Mr White had failed to stop when asked to do so. He suggested it was possible that Mr White did not realise his offence, but made it clear that under the Defence of the Realm Regulations special constables were ordered to stop all vehicles on the road; anyone resisting or obstructing them could be tried under Court Martial, and if tried in this way Mr White would certainly be found guilty. Mr White would simply have to put up with being interfered with in this way, and if he did not like being stopped he should not go out at night. The military authorities intended to see that the orders of special constables were upheld. Although Colonel Sturges let Mr White go on this occasion he hoped it would serve as a warning to Mr White and other like him.

Source: Ampthill and District News 28th November 1914