Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/62



My breakfast was a cup of coffee and a biscuit. How I enjoyed coffee, nice and sweet, that I had not had for so long! My lunch was rice, meat and some wine. People are like cattle - the Italians are nice but good manners just don't work with our fellows. They only obey a whip. At 4, the anchor was lifted and we set out. I am seasick, can't sleep the whole night.



This morning the Italians drove us to the upper deck, stripped us, bathed us, and dressed us in Italian uniforms. Meanwhile they cleaned the lower deck—threw all our things into the sea and disinfected all the rooms. They threw away all our things—shoes, blankets—I just managed to save my diary, which was already on its way out. Things the men had to drag all through Serbia, and with which they didn't part even in Albania, are now floating.

Unfortunately there was more that they threw into the sea—the dead. There were 20.

Our ship is still cruising along the coast, accompanied by two more: Sinai and ''Danten. ''

Yesterday was the end of that unlucky year—1915—in which I put so much hope and which disappointed me so much. Every one of us believed that year would bring us liberation, but instead it was a year of the