Friday August 1st, 1879

The scene onboard was as busy as one could well imagine...

… most of the passengers with their friends and a great quantity of luggage cumbered the decks and what with the seamen working at the ropes, people coming & going & one thing & another, it was a perfect pandemonium. However all things come to an end in time & so it was with all the hurry & bustle of our embarkation, things after a while got quietly settled down and though we could not readily find anything we wanted, still we did somehow manage to find sufficient to make ourselves pretty comfortable.
We have a pretty roomy berth which contains two bunks. We also got a small bunk fixed in which to put baby during the day so as not to upset the beds - it is also useful to contain considerable number of miscellaneous articles as reading books, rugs, the few tools most wanted, corkskrew &c. On the top bunk we fix Claude & Guy at one end and Percy & Oscar at the other end, feet towards feet. …my wife & I with baby occupy the low bunk. Harold is in the next Cabin with 3 other young gentlemen…. Got to bed at I do not know what hour, but after tea which was served very late, we went on deck until the ship had been towed out of Dock, and to us landsmen this was a very interesting sight.