Nineteen of the unit left for Serbia. We met at Euston station at
9.30. The train left at 10.30 a.m. for Liverpool. We had crowds of
friends to see us off. All the equipments for our Field Hospital had
gone the previous Saturday by the _Torcello_ from the East Indian
Docks by the Admiralty transport. We are taking out sixty-three tents;
the large ones hold fifteen to twenty patients. We have 300 beds and
all other equipments to fit up a Hospital, with over L300 worth of
food-stuffs.
All the unit are in a dark grey uniform with large pockets, making it
most useful, and nice hats to match.
We arrived in Liverpool at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday; then collected our
luggage. We were each allowed to take one cabin trunk and a hold-all.
On reaching the docks we got on the boat _Saidieh_ for Salonika. We
left the docks at 10 o'clock, and lay in the harbour till Good Friday,
starting at 8.30 p.m. We could not leave before, we heard, owing to
messages sent to the captain. It was nice and calm Friday night, but I
did not take off my clothes and could not sleep, thinking and
wondering if any danger might come to us. The _Saidieh_ is a horrid
boat, not at all clean, and the sanitary arrangements are terrible. It
is a Greek boat of about 3,000 tons; in the usual way it carries mails
and cargo to and from Greece and Constantinople. The weather was good
as far as St. George's Channel; we could see Ireland when in the Irish
Sea; but it became rather misty, a sea fog came on, and the horn was
continually sounded.