h
stood out the black outline of thirty ships, so full of eager and
vigorous life. About midnight I went on deck to contemplate the scene.
The night was calm and still. The vessels lay dark and silent with all
lights screened. The effect was one of lonely grandeur. What was it
going to mean to us? What did fate hold in store? Among those hills,
the outline of which I could now but faintly see, were the lakes and
salmon rivers in the heart of the great forests which make our
Canadian wild life so fascinating. We were being torn from that life
and sent headlong into the seething militarism of a decadent European
feudalism. I was leaning on the rail looking at the track of
moonlight, when a young lad came up to me and said, "Excuse me, Sir,
but may I talk to you for a while? It is such a weird sight that it
has got on my nerves." He was a young boy of seventeen who had come
from Vancouver. Many times afterwards I met him in France and Belgium,
when big things were being done in the war, and we talked together
over that night in Gaspe Basin and the strange thoughts that crowded
upon us then. He was not the only one in that great fleet of
transports who felt the significance of the enterprise.

On Saturday afternoon we resumed our journey and steamed out of the
narrows. Outside the bay the ships formed into a column of three abreast,
making a line nine miles in length. Several cruisers, and later a
battleship and battle cruiser, mounted guard over the expedition. Off
Cape Race, the steamship "Florizel" joined us, bringing the Newfoundland
troops. Our family party was now complete.

It was indeed a family party. On every ship we had friends. It seemed
as if Canada herself were steaming across the ocean. Day after day, in
perfect weather, keeping our relative positions in absolute order, we
sped over the deep. There was none of the usual sense of loneliness
which characterizes the ocean voyage. We looked at the line of vessels
and we felt that one spirit and one determination quickened the whole
fleet into individual life.

On board the "Andania" the spirit of the men was excellent. There (p. 027)
was physical drill daily to keep them fit. There was the gymnasium for
the officers. We had boxing matches for all, and sword dances also for
the Highlanders. In the early morning at five-thirty, the pipers used
to play reveille down the passages. Not being a Scotsman, the music
always woke me up. At such moments I considered it