Slight drizzle of rain first thing but this cleared off. Owing to the strong headwinds yesterday and during the night we lost three hours. Arrived Port Said about 3:30pm, passing De Lessep’s Monument on our right. This monument when erected stood a quarter of a mile out at sea. Now the length of the break water is 2 and a half miles and is being extended. The Suez Canal was opened for traffic on November 20th, 1869, and is 87 and a half miles long and ships drawing 33 feet of water are now permitted to pass through. It was about 4:15pm when we were allowed ashore and had to be aboard again at 5:30pm. A good number of passengers left the ship here, among them being our military friends both off to Haifa in Iraq. We were met by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick L. Graham. Mr. Graham is Manager for Corys Ltd. He married the daughter of my friend, Matt Worth. We went ashore and had tea at Simon Arzt Store and then hired a taxi and saw the residential, Arab and Greek quarters. Then a run onto Cory’s installation. We got back to the boat in good time and left Port Said about 6:15pm. Now moving slowly through the Canal and will take 12 hours to go from Port Sid to Suez. Whilst at Port Said we saw an Italian troopship pass on her return to Italy. Mr. Graham pointed out that all blinds were drawn when passing Port Said as they were carrying wounded back to Italy.
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