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9 Dec 57 Julius on board 'Indus' Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

On board Indus. 9th Decbr. /57

My dear Mother

We expect to make Gibraltar tonight. I understand that we shall not be able to land in consequence of our arriving after gun fire, but I mean to send this ashore. I do not know whether you will get it sooner than if posted at Malta.

This day two years ago (I remember the day well, a Sunday), I was on board the Indiana at Gibraltar on my way home from the Crimea.

There are some very good officers on board, some belonging to the 44th left at home when their Regt. went out, as there was not sufficient room on board. Clay of the 79th who lives in the same cabin with me has just come from Hythe & therefore we understand each other very well. He goes out as Inspector. He is for Calcutta so we shall see a good deal of each other.

I have made the acquaintance of Major Oxenden of the Rifles who asked me the other day if he had not seen me at Barham.

There are some 20 ladies on board. They are beginning to turn up, I expect they have suffered severely. Even the men have had enough.

There is one poor creature on board going to join her husband, a Col. Middleton. She is accompanied by her mother, Lady Kananagh. She has heard nothing of her husband & does not know where he is.

We had bad weather at first, a great deal of rolling in ‘the Bay’, but you know I am a good sailor but it is anything but pleasant to find everybody ill around you. Poor Howell, who I found out the first day at dinner, suffered terribly at first but now he laughs at his old feelings.

The linen that I left behind with the washwoman at Clacton came on board after me. It was sent down to Southampton instead of H.P.P. as requested. I have, I find, almost £3 to pay for the extra baggage but I can’t think I could have done with less.

We live very well on board; lots of eating & drinking. The first few days’ meals were very badly attended. We have great fun with some small boy on board who we make pretend to smoke & his mother, a half-caste, the wife of a Colnl. gets in a great rage & punches him, but he is accustomed to it & does not mind.

There are a number of very common men on board. It puzzles one to find out what they can be going out as, or for. It is an extraordinary thing but nevertheless a fact that they always suffer much more than the others from the motion of the vessel.

I wanted to gain shore at Gib. but I am afraid it is not to be. The Alma, the vessel we go from Suez to Calcutta is a very long thin ship & I hear we are to expect a very uneasy passage as that shape are much more given to rolling.

There are 80 Gunners on board who seem a very well conducted set of men. It is quite new sending troops overland* but it is a wonder it has not been thought of long ago.

I shall expect a detail of news ‘since Marseilles’ soon after I arrive, telling me how all the world is getting on at home.

We had a beautiful day yesterday & were in sight of the coast nearly the whole time. Today it is very rough & that will delay us getting in tonight.

We are beginning to find it much warmer down in this part of the world but not sufficient to justify one in commencing flannels & leaving off clothes.

I will write if possible from Malta. In the meanwhile, with love to yourself, Helen & all

Yr. affect. Son

J D Laurie

* overland – The speedier alternative to transit via Cape Town, involving an overland section from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean – until the opening of the Suez Canal in November 1869