TCD MS 10516 folio 9 verso
[29th July 1916] think that a river boat of such shallow draught could withstand the buffettings of the ocean on the exposed coasts of France and Spain. I asked an Officer in the R.I.M. about the journey. He assured me that not for anything would he have attempted it. The men who brought these “penny-boats” over so vast a stretch of ocean were, according to his description, “hard-cases.” The journey took seven weeks and the men recieved lump sums of money for the contract job. River boats from the rivers of India and Burma fared worse in their shorter and less stormy journies. Many sank, and their loss was largely responsible for the break-down in the river transport on these rivers. It is pleasantly cool on board. A gentle but steady breeze blows, an agreeable change from the still, foetid