Another image of the AE2 arriving at Portsmouth on 17 February 1914 to prepare for its long journey to Australia. On the morning of the submarine’s departure from Portsmouth, March 2 1914, Lieutenant Henry Stoker, the ship’s captain, wrote:
A nasty grey overcast morning, I well remember it, fresh wind blowing and mighty cold; the signs of that light hearted enthusiasm with which big undertakings should be faced seemed sadly lacking in the crew. But it appears to be one of the unwritten laws of the sea service that no sailor may be a light-hearted enthusiast before his breakfast.
[H G Stoker, Straws in the Wind, London, 1925, p.51]