Reveille 6a.m. Stroll up on deck to find that we have anchored in the night, in the Gulf of Suez off the port of Ibrahim or Tewfik*.
On one side [of] us we have a large pink granite mountain on one shore while on the other side is desert land, very rough. And then the town of Suez and the Port of Tewfik bordering the edge of it down by the Gulf.
The native here seem to be of Arab descent but I should not like to swear to them being thorough bred, them came off to us in bum boats to sell fruits, etc, we had orders not to buy, the ships police stopping any transactions taking place.
Suez and the port of Tewfik were about 2 1/2 miles apart.
We received news that we were staying here about 3 days to await the arrival of a large convoy coming from India whose escort we we going to have to proceed through the Red Sea with.
Many officers went ashore for exercise, but owing to the lighters being late it was put off till 8.30 the following morning.
Eight of our convoy were anchored here with us, I amused myself making rough sketches of the port and ships that were laying near us.
Much time was passed by the troops on different vessels signalling to one another, many fellows were able to pick up their chums on other boats, while up to now they were not aware of their presence in our convoy.
While we were here we learnt from one of the other troopships that they heard our vessel was reported sunk, and for the fun of the thing, a memorandum card was printed to celebrate the occasion.
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* Port Taofik