Argent Diary

Rough Diary

Left Port Adelaide on the 6th Augt after a fairly fine passage arrived in Sydney on Friday evening the 10th. Coaled & [illegible]. Magazine Rifles Webly [illegible] & accoutrements also ammunition from the Noral stores left, Sydney on Sunday 12th morning for Brisbane arrived at Brisbane on Tuesday 14th Captain Creswell. [illegible] took in coal & water & left for Townsville on the 13th after a fine passage. Coaled & took in water, left for Thursday Island the 15 pm. arrived at Thursday Island on the 22nd Coaled & took in water left for Manilla 23rd the weather was very fine but the heat was intense I formed a very high opinion of the men during this trip & belive from personal observation that for endurance these men are equal to any in the world. the ship's being newley commissioned it is allways the practice to drill both watches until the Crew are effeciant this the protectors crew did this without a single complaint of any kind we did not call at Manilla but called at one of the Philippines islands called Ilo Ilo latley captured from Spain during the late war. The Insurgents are still causing a lot of trouble here I visited a prison & was informed that it was about 300 years old.

& was kindley shown over by one of the non commisioned Officers from the 28th American Volunteers there was about 200 prisoners confined there mostly insurgent prisoners & american Soldiers, the most of whom was awaiting passage to America for trial for Murder incess & Crimes of a lewed nature some of these insurgents are a fine intelligent lot of men, I believe that the war in South Africa will be over & her people settled down to their industrial occupation while the Philippines islands will be in a state of martial law which is the state there at present [the american Scot soldier might be a good fighting man but I formed rather a poor opinion of them him being in my opinion sickly looking] but we took in coal & water & left Ilo Ilo for Hong Kong it was a great relief to get away from the land. the heat being intense. I was informed by some of the leading citizens of Ilo Ilo that [illegible] [illegible] was unknown before the American soldiers landed, I seen a great number of very bad cases during our stay, the employment of the insurgents prisoners was making fancy Baskets & Bird Cages for the american Soldiers to take Back [to] home as curioses rather a [illegible] employment.

the passage from Ilo Ilo was a very rough one we was Battened down during this trip all the way to Hong Kong, & the heat was terrible we got the fag end of a typhoon and for the size of the vessel she behaved in a grand style. I would not wish to be in a Better Ship, of Course we shipped a lot of water during the trip, we arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday the 9th of September & made fast to number 9 buoy we found ships of war from all nations in harbour Hong Kong is a fine well protected Harbour we had a lot of stores to draw from the N.Y. I obtained 4.45 Maxim Guns & complete outfit & ammunition for them. The naval authorities could not believe that we was armed with [illegible] Guns & it quite astonished the great number of Naval officers that visited us during our stay to see that we was so heavily armed, they all was of an opinion that the ship was a very formidable one & the kind of ship required for [illegible] work in China, & was quite surprised to hear that the ships company was composed purely of N. Reserve Australian a thing not yet attempted by the imperial authorities to send a ship in active service manded by N.R. on the 11th at 8.0 am the Ship was Commissioned Captain Creswell reading out & presenting each officer with his acting Commission [illegible]

from the Admirality the Blue Ensign was lowered & the White Ensign hoisted & the Commodores Flags was Saluted with a Salute of 9 Guns, on the 17th the Landing party landed at Kowloon & marched to the rifle ranges distance about 4 Miles we fell in sharp at 8 am by Signal from the Tarnes senior ship men & Officers fully equipped & marched to the rifle ranges in a broiling hot Sun. each man fired 20 Rounds at 2 & 300 yards. 10 independant Firing & 10 individual this was the first time the men had fired with the Magazines rifle the results was on the whole satisfactory the average for each squad of 20 men in the individual firing was 19.8 which I thought was very good after drawing stores & taking in Coal & provisions we left Hong Kong on the 20th for Woosong arriving on the 24th after a fairly fine passage after remaining at Woosing one day we was ordered to Shangahi which is about 10 miles from Woosang after taking in Coal & Water we was ordered to Wei hai Nei we left Shangahi on the 28th & after a fine passage we arrived at [Nea?] [illegible] Wei on Sunday the 28th we meet the (terrible) there she had landed the same Gun & mountings that was used in South Africa Captain Scot visited us during the day & formed a very high opnion of the Protector Heavy armament & was quite surprised when I informed him that the Crew was all Australian naval Reserve.

after remaining at Nei hai Wei a few hours we left for Taku arriving there on the 1st of October we meet Battle ship here from all nations, we found the Flag ship Admiral Seymour here & Saluted him with 15 Guns after remaining here one day we received orders to proceed to ching huang tau [arriving] be wighed about 7.30 pm & proceeded followed by 2 German Cruisers & a Russian Gun Boat this place is only about 120 Miles from Taku we arrived about 7 am & found HMS Dido & some Russian French & German war ship at anchor we at once received orders to land 25 men [full] in [illegible] marching order with 2 days provisions, to land with the same number from the Dido. I was in Charge of our men & we where all in high spirits, the order was cancelled just as we was marching into the Boats I found out afterwards the Cause of our not landing, it appears we was to occupy a fort but the Russian Gun Boat that followed us out of Taku had slipped in during the night occupied the fort & planted the Russian Flag we all felt greatly disappointed but hope for better luck next time we at once left for Taku with dispatches from the Admiral arriving at daylight the next morning the 14th.