During the week Commander Heriz, R.N., and myself, representing the Admiralty, inspected the hospital ships _Spartan_ and _Trojan_ before their start; they had been fitted out under the Commander's superintendence, and were perfect; in fact, one almost wished to be a sick man to try them! All these continued departures aroused great public interest; on one day we had the Commander-in-Chief (Lord Wolseley), Lord Methuen, Sir William Gatacre, and many other Generals; and on another the Duke of Connaught came to see the 1st Bn. Scots Guards off in the _Nubia_ and gave them a message from the Queen; he came again a few days later to see his old regiment, the Rifle Brigade, off in the _German_, and he and the Transport Officers were photographed many times. I was told afterwards that my own portrait appeared very often in the cinematographs of these scenes, which were then very popular and were exhibited to crowded audiences in all the London and Provincial Music Halls and elsewhere. I was very pleased on this occasion to meet my old First Lieutenant of the _Cambrian_, now Commander Mark Kerr, R.N., who was also seeing the Rifle Brigade off with a party of relatives whom I took over the _Kildonan Castle_. Here I may mention, to show the different rates of speed, that the _German_ carrying the Rifle Brigade, actually arrived at Capetown some hours after the _Briton_ (in which I myself left later on for South Africa), although it started ten days before us. I have very pleasant recollections of being associated with Major Edwards of the Berkshire Regiment in embarking the Reserves of the 3rd Bn. Grenadier Guards in the _Goorkha_, which ship I had been superintending for so long; I was able to get their Commanding Officer, Major Kincaid, two good cabins, for which I think he was much obliged to me. These Reserves were going to Gibraltar to pick up the main Battalions of their regiment which took part later on (3rd and 4th November) in Lord Methuen's actions at Belmont and Graspan.