A "DRY" TRANSPORT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1480, 11 March 1919, Page 6

A "DRY" TRANSPORT.

NIGHT RAID BY TROOPS. WHAT THE HOLD 11 ELD. The following story was related by a soldier who returned to Auckland by tho transport Port Melbourne regarding an incident that occurred in the mid-Atlantic on a “dry” transport. One night as the bugler sounded Ids soothing lullaby, nnd the fading lights put an end to the “Lwo-np” mission meeting, half a dozen soldiers, who must he nameless, heaved up the hatch cover, and one by one slid swiftly down an obliging rope into the nether regions. The chib obtained rii increase of membership within the hall hour. The news spread like a scandal in a steam laundry. Men who had slept soundly even as Fritz came over the top woke with a cold sweat. Beer tn a New Zealand transport! .Every case within range had been opened, with insults that would have done credit to a Lord Mayor’s banquet! It was a perfect welter of beer, stout and lager, tinned fruits, tinned fish, nuts, lollipops, and other .sustenance beloved oi the gods. A sack of loaf sugar was also tapped. The feasting and drinking went on till the early hours ol the morning. The menu was limited, but tlie supply never . failed. Anon thoie were alfclionate adieus, and not a lew bellicose benedictions as the participants crawled to their hammocks. What, pen is capable of describing the scene when the cock crew? The bottles and corks, shells and sugar, tins and hones, and concomitant ,symptoms of the Bacchanalian licanleiist need not he particularised. One wild-eyed soldier leaned against a- wall and sang, “The officers’ mess have puddingsh and pies, The soldiers’ wives have skilly.” Two or three others zig-zagged along carrying a rope. Tho deed was not yet discovered, so a case or two more of beer was drawn from the hold, and smashed open, the contents being furtively distributed in odd corners. The breakfast was porridge, liver and bacon, I and beer. The line and cry came in { due course, and it was not hard ki dis- | cover some of the delinquents.. The bill ! when duly presented footed up to C 7() for liquor and other goods. Every man on the ship was mulcted to the extent of Is 2d, thus a thousand men 1 ad to pay for the act of about thirty of their ; comrades.