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Tuesday 25th (Continued)
Myriads of small fish under jetty - avg. length 6" -
which are caught in a kind of large crab net, for bait.
Water is a beautiful colour here - kind of electric blue.
Plenty of pearling luggers & other sailing boats about.
A B.I.Steamer, laden with coal, was anchored near
the entrance. She had been ashore, and had jettisoned some
hundreds of tons of coal to get off. Several wrecks
seen. Population of T. Id. is about as mixed as
one can find in any part of the world. Japanese,
Chinese, Cingalese, Malays, Manila men, niggers, zulus
and other kinds I could not determine, & a growing population
of all varieties of tints. We all decided we would
not care to live in Thursday Id. Left jetty at 1-0
having waited an hour for the engineers to fit a
spring in the L.P. cyl. and get cover on. Passed thro'
Albany Pass about 5pm. when it was seen to advantage.
Cold dark night. SE trade wind continuing to blow.
Wednesday 26th. Passing along Great Barrier Reef.
Met the "Eastern" at lunch time, a mile or 2 off.
Thursday 27th. Callled at Cairns, where we landed
a couple of passengers and took on 5 more. Discharged
95 tons general, mostly rice. Mr Shaw, C.O. told me
as a sling of cases went into the lighter that it
was worth £3500. It contained opium. We lay
about 6 miles from Jetty. Had to wait some hours
for tender & lighter. Got away abt 9pm. Cold.