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They wanted him to keep the coat but he was frightened of the Americans.
There are two Yankee man-of-war in the Harbour.

Left Ilo Ilo for Hong Kong Sept 5th. The reason we called Ilo Ilo
was that the coal would not last till we reached Manila. After leaving Ilo Ilo we
caught in the end of a cyclone which lasted till we reached Hong Kong, Sunday 9th 1p.m.
It is a fine harbour. There are a lot of English man-of-war here. One the Argonaut
is a very large one with 4 funnels and 650 hands on board. Five or six Torpedo
boats and destroyers. There is one large German man-of-war and 1 American.

There was leave for the port watch from 4 till 10p.m. so I went
straight into the Naval Canteen and changed all my money into Dollars & Cents.
One China dollar equals about 2/- and there are 100 cents in a dollar. There are
hundreds of sampans on the river; most of them are bum boats who hawk
all sorts of things. As soon as we were moored they flocked around us like a
swarm of bees. All along the shore there are small carts called rickshaws
everywhere you go. Myself and several others got in one each and off we went,
a chow pulling us along as fast as a horse. We went about 2 miles. Had a
look around and met 2 American man of wars men. They took us to a shop where
we could get a good feed for 30 cents. Our leave expired and we went aboard.

On Tuesday 11th, we hauled down our Colonial colours and hoisted
the White Ensign, and at once went under the routine of the Harbour Fleet. On
Sunday 16th we went to church on HMS Tamar. In the afternoon some of the Port
watch went for a picnic in a launch and we did have a picnic I can assure
you, only one lady in the company. It was a very pretty sight sailing among the
Islands. We steamed for about 20 miles, and some of us went ashore. When they
were coming back the dinghy capsized alongside. We had to get steam up and
go after the oars then. We returned about 8 o'clock.

On Monday morning we went ashore to the ranges and had a day's
class firing with magazine rifles. On Tuesday we got orders to proceed to Shanghai
next day. We got under way on Wednesday Sept 19th at 2.30 p.m. We entered
the Yang-Tse-Kiang river on Sunday at noon (23rd) and proceeded up. We
passed 4 British men of war, 1 French, 3 German, 1 Jap, and one Chinese Fort. We
anchored just in front of a German Torpedo Boat Destroyer "Hela". All foreign
men-of-war have an English Boat close to them. This place is called Woo Sung.
The water is quite fresh for washing yourself & clothes. We washed our clothes in it on
Monday night. We are going to Shanghai in the morning. At 5 A.M. on Tuesday
Sept. 25th we hove up anchor & proceeded up the River to Shanghai. We passed
about 20 men-of-war in the river before coming to anchor. Several English officers
came on board & we were ordered to proceed to Takee on Wednesday, but on
account of watering & coaling we did not get away until Thursday at 10 a.m.