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Wed Nov 25
At 3 myself at 2 & Sherwood now. We got there quite safely though ??? to very bad ??? by Beach we very nearly got ??? by one of the Dougola's boats which came up at the same time. We were relieved in state by the ??? Half officers and talked ??? French. They feed just a little better than we do & the food is rather ??? nicely dished up. After lunch ??? took me over the ship. She has been running as a Trooper for the last 10 years & is much ??? fitted for the job than over boat which was condemned for Trooping 9 years ago. They have things more conveniently arranged and of course there is more room in here. She is 8000 tons ago over 5000. The officers have a lovely boat deck to themselves & there aren't pipes & things all over the place as on the Dilwana. They have two troop decks & the men have the Promenade deck to themselves.
We had a game of ??? & one of Deck Cricket while we were there and we watched another convoy come in. There were 14 ships with Australians on board. Q Jap ??? was escorting them.
We left for the Dilwana after tea. The Co. coxed this time. It was rather hard work moving as we had the wind against us.
After dinner some of the officers from one of the N.Z. Transports came over. It was very interesting meeting them. They said NZ is sending over 30,000 men; as their total pop. is only about 1,000,000 it is jolly good. They are