Princess ClemintineThe entire 4th Division of the CEF left Southampton for France on the evening of August 10th. The decks and every corridor of the Princess Clementine were crowded with sleeping soldiers. They arrived at LeHavre, France, the following morning enthused with the belief that the war was “confined”—at least James thought so (Diary 25th July). The published Diary of the 11th points out that;

Not an officer, non-commissioned officer, or man of the 11th Canadian Field Ambulance but felt the thrill of expectancy and a keen sense of anticipation of the unknown that lay before him as he filed along the gang-way from the deck of the “Princess Clementine” and stood at last on the historic soil of France. To the boys who stepped upon her shores that morning of August 11th at 7.40 of the clock France meant but one thing. Here was the land where was to be accomplished the work for which they had been preparing for months past, to do which they had made the sacrifice of their private aims, and by which they hoped to contribute in however small a degree, to the defeat of Prussian arrogance and aggression and to the establishment of a lasting democratic peace for the world (Dairy of the Eleventh, 20)