14th September 1918 Saturday
Boring Fishing, Dodgy Boating and Salmon at 48p a kilo
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“Saturday September 14th, 1918. In the afternoon I went down to the river – the Emtsa – with Turner and Wood, two of my R.A.M.C. orderlies, to do a bit of fishing. We rigged up a Heath-Robinson fishing rod with a long pole, a piece of string, and a bent pin, and after a long hunt dug up two anaemic-looking worms. But we had no luck, and after about five minutes of it I got tired of the sport ?, and discovering a canoe, decided to go for a sail. Turner came with me. As the current was very swift, we had some difficulty in navigating the old tub, but managed to keep ourselves afloat. Two Rusky boys came down to fish, and had hardly been on the scene five minutes before they caught a fine big fish. What it was I know not, but it looked like a mackerel.
2/Lt. Jerome, a Royal Scots officer, joined us today. Also twenty Frenchmen, and thirteen mules with six limbers. The villagers turned out in force to gape at these wonderful animals. They had evidently never seen one before. It was good to hear the beasts ‘hee-hawing’ again!
We got news that Lt. Col. Henderson, Black Watch, was on his way up from Archangel to command our little force.
Antofioff brought in a fine, big salmon at night, which we bought for 165 roubles – 11 roubles (4/7d.) per pound!
The only other event of importance during the day was that we put the time back an hour and a half.”
The concept of Daylight Saving Time was still in its infancy during the First World War.
Rowing on the Dwina
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