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Ashby's journey home was not all plain sailing. The two-month voyage began on 10 September when the SS Morea left Adelaide with 150 BAAS delegates to cross the Great Australian Bight. After refuelling at Fremantle, the Morea was en route to Sri Lanka when news broke that a German cruiser, the SMS Emden, was harassing commercial shipping between Australia and Europe. J.D. Andrews, the Morea's captain, was instructed to proceed with 'all lights out' and strict 'radio silence'. He also promptly left the shipping lane and made for Colombo at full speed. It was quite a gamble, given the risk of a night-time collision, but luckily it paid off. Had he not done so, the routes taken by both ships would have converged on 24 September as they rounded the southern tip of Sri Lanka. Instead, the Morea reached Colombo on 22 September, two clear days ahead of schedule, and thus, its passengers avoided that dangerous encounter. In fact, according to the Times of Ceylon, Captain Andrews broke the record for the Fremantle to Colombo crossing by two hours! (23 September 1914: 5)
This photograph of the Morea was taken from Direction Island in 1914 (image 1). The tiny island is among 27 that form two atolls (the Cocos-Keeling Islands group) midway across the Indian Ocean. In six weeks' time, it would be the site of a fierce naval battle, when the HMAS Sydney would end the Emden's rampage. Before then, however, the German cruiser would rack up 23 'prizes', paralyse the shipping lanes, fan the flames of 'Emden' fever in Colombo, and generate enough material for seven motion pictures. One of the earliest was The Exploits of the Emden, a silent movie co-directed by an Australian and a German in 1928. 
The Emden is still the most successful surface raider of all time. Indeed, Ashby's fellow passengers recalled their anxiety at being stalked by danger at sea. We get a sense of this from a letter by Prof. Luigi Luiggi, an Italian engineer and BAAS delegate, that was published in the Oceania newspaper (image 2).

Photograph: 'Barrel mail from R.M.S. Morea. Signalling from the shore as the R.M.S. Morea sails past'. [State Library of South Australia B 72501/2] 
Article: 'Una Lettera del Prof. Luiggi', Oceania (7 November 1914). 1 [State Library New South Wales.] 
Article: 'The Morea Arrives, Record Run from Fremantle to Colombo', The Times of Ceylon (23 September 1914). 5.