followed by a movie at night. Before very long I can start getting mail ready for despatch from Pago and am very anxious to hear from Len regarding any new developments. We hope to spend two nights in Sydney; I have written for reserva- tions at the Carlton Hotel, and there might be mail from him as well as from the U.S. waiting us there. This is being written in a hot, dark little room and I am not able to see the keys very clearly sod doubtless there will be many typographical errors. The readers can simply figure them out for themselves. I'm quitting for the day now. Monday, 2 February 1948. Probably the time has now come to write a few im- pressions of the ship as Van and I have just returned from a visit to the bridge. Capt. Johansen was not there but we were shown around by Mr. Gobel, the 3rd mate. The navigating equipment and safety devices seem to leave nothing to be desired and a great many of the instruments are quite new to me even in name. There is, however, something missing to one accustomed to ships and seafarers say twenty years ago. It is in the organization somehow and probably is the influence of the C.I.O. and A.F.L. For example one rarely hears an order given to a deck-hand and in fact one rarely sees a deck hand or even a deck steward. The cabin steward shows up in the morning to make up the berths but somehow I for the impression that after that he is through until the following morning because John L. Lewis says so. One of the very junior officers is in charge of our lifeboat, which will be too bad; describing the boat's posi- tion, he pointed at a grating and said something about "this thing, I don't know what it is called". Poor staff work, I think. There was a slight fog this morning and we only logged 377 miles during the last 24 hours, as compared with 409 during the previous 24. Now the sea is tak- ing on a heavy swell again and there will probably be more decimation. It really is shameful how some of the passengers are wedged in; one man, Wilmot, an Englishman who is doing something in connection with educational mat- ers in conjunction with the Dominions, is one of eighty men in a single dor- motomy. A lady at my table told me of a woman, evidently in a similar place, who has had no sleep since our departure from San Francisco, who was found by a passenger, not a steward or stewardessk in a state of collapse on one of the companion ways. The only thing in the favor of the line is that they gave warning of conditions in advance. There are a surprising number of G.I.'s who, with their Australian wives and one or more children, are returning to Australia. The propaganda to that end must have been very cleverly worked out. The weather up to this point has been continually overcast and somewhat chilly; at the moment there is no change and we continue to run into rain squalls and get very rare glimpses of the sun. I am working hard to cut down the enormous supply of paper-back who-dun-its so that I can sometime get my clothing packed decently and be able to lift my luggage without the aid of a crane. I think, when we reach Sydney, I shall give the room steward half og his tip and tell him he will get the other half when all our stuff is on the wharf. Tuesday, 3 February 1948. With twelve men using our small lavatory equip- ment, there is something of a crowd in the morn- ing. This morning I think I was twelfth as I decided there would be a lull be- tween first and second sittings. I was wrong and now do my shaving and showering between three and four in the afternoon. It works very well.