Australian 3 - Solomon's Song by Bryce Courtenay

Author:Bryce Courtenay
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781552781562
Published: 2000-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

THE DEPARTURE

Albany, Western Australia 1914

Never before have the Melbourne docks seen a day like October 21st 1914. For the past three days eleven troopships carrying nearly eight thousand men and three thousand horses have departed for Albany, with the Orient liner Orvieto, the fastest and the largest ship, departing last. Dock workers are bleary-eyed, having worked double shifts during the several embarkations. Exhausted tugboat captains are hoarse from trying over four days to make some sense of a convoy of ships where each vessel is preoccupied with a hundred tasks at once and seems to have neither the time nor the nous to complete any one of them correctly. It is madness and mayhem and anyone who pretends to know what they are doing is indulging a fevered imagination.

Yet somehow the troops say their last farewells to weeping mothers, sisters and tearful girlfriends. Sons, brothers and sweethearts are embraced one last time and urged to look upon the evening star with the knowledge that their loved one will be on the front porch every night they remain apart, gazing at the same heaven’s light and praying for their safe return. Gravel-voiced fathers suck in their stomachs and comport themselves in what they imagine is a military posture, gravely shaking the hands of their sons, exhorting them not to let the family name down. ‘Go to it, son, show the Hun what we Aussies are all about, there’s a good lad, your mother and me are real proud of you.’

‘We’ve drawn the short straw, lads,’ Ben tells his platoon after returning from the sergeants’ briefing on the departure. ‘We’re on the Orvieto and so is the top brass, General Bridges and the entire collection of red tabs.’ He continues, ‘If we should go to the bottom, Australia’s part in this war is over. You’ll have to watch your dress, mind. It’ll be spit and polish all the way and your saluting arm won’t get a lot of rest neither.’

‘She’s an Orient-line ship, Sergeant, there’ll be cabins and all, even a ship’s library,’ Library Spencer pipes up.

‘Sure, Private Spencer, though I can’t see you loungin’ about in a club chair doing a lot of reading, it’s steerage for such as you lot, real cosy accommodation. There’s two extra bunks built into each cabin and when you’re lying down, there won’t be enough room between you and the bottom of the next bunk for a highly polished cockroach to squeeze through. One good thing, though, the chow’s likely to be a bit better, the high-ups tend to like their tucker, but I daresay the standard will drop a little towards the bottom of the stew pot. I hope you’ve all brought your curry powder?’

Hawk and Victoria are up early to see Ben off, though they are aware that he will not be permitted to break ranks to meet them. Victoria has obtained a pre-war photograph of the Orvieto from somewhere and has marked the exact spot where Ben must stand, roughly midships with the second funnel directly behind him.

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