Thursday 12 February 1955 (cont) Few eye-level habitat groups with colored photograph backgrounds--poor. Gift shop manned by Jr. Leaguers. Teacher, Mr. Smith, young and enthusiastic. Director: Mr. Vans (sp?) told of plans for new $1,000,000 museum in different location. Also Botanical garden and aquarium. Spring is just touching the Gulf cost. Back to ship by bus--just in time--10 min. tp spare. Sailed 12:00 M. Down Houston Ship Channel in 2 hours. Texas City at 4:15. Galveston entrance at 5:00 P.M. Well out at 6:00 P.M. Course 128° Bound for Canal Zone. A beautiful clear day. Chilly. Wind from North. Saw 2 groups of white pelicans--500-600 all told. Also a flock of skimmers. Laughing gulls along channel. Only a few ring-bills and H. gulls. 1 dark 10 term (large) bill not red yet. Many ducks in every shallow, also great blue herons and American egrets. Friday 13 February 1955 8:30 A.M. Course 128° Densely packed stratocumulus. East wind kicking over a few whitecaps. Rather cold. At least 2 dozen H. gulls following; 2+ Jaegers (one sooty wh. & other dark underpts). No ships in sight. Dry bulb temp 62° F, wet 55°. A lonely course. Have seen no ships today. At 5:30 there were at least 10 (possibly 12 or more) Jaegers following ship; at noon there were only 3. They often rest on water, preen and then overtake ship. Noon today (sun time on ship) was at 12:18 P.M. Course at 6:30 127° . Wind falling. Very little motion to ship today. Lat 25° 58'N; Lg 90° 58'W. Course 136° T. Dist by obs. 281 mi. Steaming time 18 hr 45 min. Av sp 14.98 K. Wind NE 3. Sea NE slight. To Cristobal 1214 mi Houston 281 mi. Sky cleared and sun out strong about 2 to 3:00 P.M. Fire drill in P.M. Captain's inspection this A.M. Herring gull with oil streak on underparts following us most of P.M. Don't know when Jaegers joined us. Slop chest open tonight for crew and passengers. Food continues good. Milk at breakfast and lunch. Salt mackerel gave me a real thirst today. Sleeping very well. Napped this A.M. Almost in center of Gulf tomorrow. Off Yucatan soon. Pass fairly close. Saturday 14 February 1955 Course 130° Clear. Horizon clouds. Wet bulb 73°F. Dry 77°F. No motion. 8 A.M. No birds. 11:30 A.M. Wind strong from south. Pitching slightly. Blue-hulled schooner crossing our wake on an easterly course. No birds. Puffy cumulus clouds overhead. 12:00 M. 2 Jaegers in sight, 1 very dark, 1 light underpts. Course changed to 136° Just 30 mi off the coast of Yucatan. A hot sun all afternoon but the strong breeze made it very pleasant. Had my shirt off for a half hour. Most of the passengers were sun bathing. Have started to slow up on eating. Food continues very good. Soon after sunset we passed a United Fruit passenger ship on a north- bound course, probably for New Orleans. Wind dying down. Read until about midnight. Talk is that we will not reach Panama until Tues. A.M. Lat 22° 00'N. Long 86° 33'W. Course 134° T. Dist by obs. 341 St. time 24 hrs Av Sp 14.21 K. Wind SE 4, Sea SE slg. T.T. 1 d 18 h 45 m. Cristobal 875, Houston 622,