E.S. "Gordon" Lacey - Diary 2

Pedro Miguel, we got a sight of two members of the fair sex, and you may be sure their appearance was greeted with wild cheers, from the ship, as they were the first females we had seen for a consid -erable time. Here again there were crowds of soldiers and darkies and the exchange of coins and badges started again. All

along the banks of the Culebra but there are scattered houses and the inhabitants turned out to have a look at us and give us a cheer. These American darkies are a lively cheerful lot, as soon as the band struck up they would start to rag and caper about. After coming out of Gatun Locks we steamed out into

Limon Bay, and after a little delay, we pulled in alongside a wharf to coal Cristobal. The wharf was a square concrete structure with all the centre hollow, in which tons of coal was heaped. The machinery that does the coaling is a fine bit of work. Beyond the wharf is the old French canal started by

De Lesseps. The town of Colon is built on the mainland and it looks very pictur -esque from the boat. There are clumps of palms here and there among the neat white houses. After coaling operatio -ns were finished we pulled out into the bay and lay at anchor with the Themesticles. All through

the trip, we had been building on having leave to go ashore at Panama, but when we got word that there was to be no shore leave, there was an attempt at striking, but the thing did not go far, as some of the lads were not game to risk