Monday Apr 12/15.

Passed between Rhodes Is.
& [unclear: Karpathos] Is. at day break page 26 & continued our voyage through
the archipelago all day.

About 5 pm had a heavy
rain storm, which was quite
a strange experience to us
– we having enjoyed fine
weather for such a long period.
Sea continues calm making
trip very pleasant.

7 pm just after dark and
a rather dirty night the
tow rope parted and let go
the steam launch & 2 barges
we were towing.. A rocket
light was put overboard and
with a volunteer crew ^{[gap — reason: illegible]}from
Taranaki coy. & 2 ships' officers a boat was
lowered away. (The Indian crew
of this ship are not much good
in a boat.) However the pilot
light went out & the captain
recalled the boat & decided to
go slow & look round in the
morning, owing to the remote
chance of finding the boats in
the dark on a dirty night.

page 27

It would also be a risky
proceeding - altho' we could
have manned several boats
with good volunteer crews.