S.S. China. Dec.1. Dearest Mother. From time to time I interrupt my writing to gaze through my glasses at the coast of Crete [Kriti]! I seem to spend a good deal of my time running down these rocky shores - last time I was here was June and Mount Ida [Idhi Oros] had a tiny snowcap on then as it has now. We passed through Messina at night alas! this boat makes about 17 knots an hour, so my calculations are all out. We are extremely comfortable. The boat is the steadiest I have ever been on and though it blew a good deal yesterday we felt no motion at all. The only drawback is that it's very full; the decks are too crowded and one has to wait for one's bath. But it is not at all the ordinary lot of passengers, they are on the whole much nicer. Susan and I have got the oddest old party in our cabin; she spends most of her time telling us how she dresses for balls in Cashmere [Jammu and Kashmir], and when she puts on long tails of false hair she explains carefully how all her hair fell out after she had fever last time; however she is most amenable and lets us get up and go to bed whenever we like and we in return press her to tell us tales of Cashmere while we dress. Yesterday morning I had a long talk with Miss Muir who is a most attractive and delightful creature. And charming to look at. She is deep in Brahman books and immensely interested by them so I lent her some of mine and am going to read some of hers. She is with an equally attractive sister, Mrs Moncrieff. We sit by the Russells at meals; they are extremely affable and friendly. Opposite to us are a very nice little Dundas couple - I've a notion he was at Eton with Maurice for I know his nickname - the Rising Sun. That's exactly what he looks like - dazzlingly ugly. I shall ask him some time if he doesn't know Maurice. There are a Mr and Mrs Samuel on board, the brother of our rival. I haven't made their acquaintance yet. We play Bridge after dinner with Gilbert and Diana - the latter is not much good, but they are both very keen and Hugo is delighted to have a Bridge party. The one curse of this sort of boat is that they will try to entertain you. They have pinned up an immense programme of balls and tournaments. Mr Storrs is getting up a concert. I introduced ourselves to him and he asked Hugo to accompany Susan which is a good plan.
Tuesday. [2 December 1902] It blew a good deal yesterday afternoon, but we scarcely felt it. The great drawback was that we had to sleep with our ports closed and the cabin was extremely stuffy. Today we are into calm seas and it is much warmer - muslin shirts and no jackets even for sitting on deck. It is so very delightful. We arrive at Port Said at 2 and I fear we shall be there till tomorrow as we have to coal and take on the mails. I have just been talking to Mr Dundas who is a cheerful little soul. He used to do chemistry with Maurice at Eton - he is now in the Indian Civil. He's a nephew of Lord Zetland's - I wonder if he is a son of Tommy Dundas. I have made rather friends with a rather nice Mrs Gascoyne whose husband is a colonel. She played Bridge with us last night for Diana dropped out owing to the rolling - she played ill but she is rather pleasant. The days have passed very quickly. I have enjoyed the peacefulness of them after the rushing end of London and Redcar and I feel already very much rested. I can't help wishing I were going to leave all this crowd of people at Port Said and go off peacefully to Syria or some delightful well known place, but I shall be glad I haven't when I get to India.

Mr Schuster is having a real rest! I don't believe he has been to anywhere but Bayreuth ever before; now he's off to India with Egypt and Greece on the way back. He's as pleased as Punch. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude

England seems already such a long way off! I can scarcely believe it's less than a week since we left.