ng on Trebizond and which we were to
visit next day. In the afternoon we had a fine run along an
excellently engineered road up the Tchorok valley, a deep trough in
the mountains. The air in this part of the world seemed delightfully
genial after the rigours of Scandinavia, Petrograd and Mohileff,
reminding one of Algiers in spring; the vegetation was everywhere
luxuriant on the hillsides, the ground was carpeted with wildflowers,
and oranges abounded in the groves around the town.

Up about 3 the next morning, we boarded a destroyer to make the run to
Off, which was eighty-five miles away along the coast, and put off out
of the harbour through the gap in the torpedo-net about dawn. It was a
lovely morning without a breath of air; this was as well perhaps,
because the interior of the vessel, an old-type craft making a
tremendous fuss over going, say, 18 knots, was not particularly
attractive. The officers on board could not speak English or French,
which struck one as odd, but apparently the personnel of the Black Sea
fleet rarely proceeded to other waters--to the Baltic, for instance,
or the Far East. All went smoothly until we were within about a dozen
miles of our destination when a wireless message was picked up
announcing that the _Portugal_ had just been torpedoed and was sinking
close to Off, and asking for help. We cracked on all speed, the craft
straining and creaking as if she would tumble to pieces, and I doubt
if we were making much more than 25 knots then; but by the time that
we reached the scene of the disaster any of the personnel who could be
saved were already on board other vessels and being landed. We learnt
that several of the male personnel and two or three of the nurses,
including the Baroness Meyendorff, had, unhappily, been drowned.

The _Portugal_ was the second hospital ship that I had set foot on
since the beginning of the war, and, like the _East Anglia_ mentioned
on p. 228, she had gone to the bottom within twenty-four hours of my
visit. I determined to give hospital ships a wide berth in future if
possible--I did not bring them luck. With her Red Cross markings she
was perfectly unmistakable; she had been attacked in broad daylight on
an almost glassy sea, and the U-boat commander must have been
perfectly well aware of her identity when he sank her. The tragic
occurrence naturally cast a gloom over Off, where we landed on the
open beach and were met by General Liakoff, commanding the Fiel