Reveille 6. Breakfast 7:15. Thundering & lightening, raining heavy.  Still in Harbour. More ships moor here, about 28. Sports afternoon. Wrote home at night.

The Port of Marseilles

Before the First World War, Marseilles had been considering an expansion of its harbour away from the Vieux Port.  This was to be put on hold by both World Wars.

In February 1917, Lena Ashwell and her concert party gave a series of concerts in Marseilles before sailing for Malta. The Germans had just declared unrestricted submarine warfare upon both Allied and neutral shipping and there was considerable anxiety in the port. As she recalls of Marseilles in her memoir:

‘The next concert is at Hangar 8, and the ride takes us along the docks, giving a wonderful view of busy wharves and unspeakable slums, of Zouaves crowding on to their transport, and of our Tommies sitting by the roadside cheerily responding to our waving hands…  Here they have cargoes of hides, which, when damp, make noisome scents. … There was difficulty in getting at Hangar 8. Passports are asked for, but at last we were taken into the Holy of holies, past a transport full of our men who have been there for hours and will go three hours’ Journey before the transport knows its destination. In spite of these precautions, spies find out everything.’¹

The bustling, ship-filled harbour that Frank mentions here would have been similar to that shown in this old map and these old photographs.

References & further reading

¹ Ashwell, Lena, 1871-1959. ‘Modern troubadours, a record of the concerts at the front’ (Kindle Locations 1213-1219). London, Gyldendal.

* Images may be subject to copyright