While our lifeboat was being lowered and the man
was being rescued, the three lines of transports buckled and the ships
see-sawed to right and left in their efforts to avoid collisions.
The man proved to be a painter who, unobserved, had fallen off the
"Royal Edward" in front of us, and but for the vigilance of the
lookout on our ship, would undoubtedly have perished.
There seemed to be about a thousand nurses aboard the Franconia--the
real number was about a hundred but they multiplied by their ubiquity;
they swarmed everywhere; sometimes they filled the lounge so that the
poor Major or Colonel could not get in for his afternoon cup of tea.
The daily lectures for officers, particularly on subjects like
"artillery range finding" had an abnormal fascination for the nurses
while subjects like "the Geneva Convention" and "Hygiene" which they
might have found useful held little attraction for them. Such is the
perversity of the nurse when given the rank of an officer and freed
from all hospital restraint. At the concerts few officers could obtain
seats and a few of us were mean enough to wish that it would get rough
enough to put some of the nurses temporarily down and out. The nurses
were in a doubly fortunate position in that they could demand the
rights of both officers and women, according to which happened to be
advantageous at the moment.
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