Eric Steven's Diary (Parma 1936)

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At Sea S.S. Parma Sunday 29 March 3?

Dear Mother,

I have decided to write this letter in diary form, that is I will start it now & add to it from time to time. It will save me writing half a dozen long letters on arrival in England & besides I can give a better description of the ship as things happen instead of looking back on it all when I arrive there. I'll write all my letters this way. Well, we left at noon on Friday, March 20th, and we are now 9 days out somewhere near the south-west corner of Australia & headed via the Cape of Good Hope instead of Cape Horn, for which I'm very thankful. I have been seasick, very seasick - am only just recovering slowly although still a bit weak owing to not eating much, for I couldn't, although they told me it was best to do so. I brought up every meal I ate for 2 days but although I get a queer feeling in the stomach sometimes, I haven't brought up any food. The other Australian was just the same & is now getting well. He is in the starboard watch under the 2nd mate & I'm in the port watch under the 1st & 3rd mates. The captains seldom gives orders. The day is divided from midnight to midnight into 5 watches - midnight to 4am; 4am to 8am, 8am to 1pm, one pm to 7pm and 7pm to midnight. Thus we are on duty one day from midnight to 4am, 8 am to 1pm and 7 pm to midnight & the next day we are on from 4am to 8am and 1pm to 7pm so that we are on 14 hrs every second day and 10 every other second day, six hours is the longest time we get off & as meals & washes take up about an hours we never get more than 5 hours sleep at any one time. For the first 6

Last edit over 3 years ago by Jannyp
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2 days after leaving Port Victoria, I neither washed, undressed, combed my hair nor used my towels but just laid in my bunk mostly, expecting & hoping to do. Yet the weather has not been rough but just a bit choppy at times; sunny at times, cloudy at times, & mostly cool to cold. When we are on duty at night we dress & lay in our bunks ready if wanted & I have [crossed out] hour's lookout sometimes 2, each night The others have an hour at the wheel also as I will, when I learn to steer. During the day we do odd jobs like chipping rust etc; not very hard altho' any exertion has been hard for me up till now. Our crew consists of 2 Australians, 2 Englishmen, 3 Germans, 4 Finns 2 Estonians and 7 Swedes or Swedish-Finns - the latter come from Aland (pronounced Oland) a small island up in the Baltic Sea where most of these sailing ships finally anchor & call "home". I'm hoping we'll get to England in time for me to get to that conference for this way takes much longer than the Horn, 83 days is the record for the latter (held by the Parma in 1933 when Alan J. Villiers the author sailed on her) & 98 days is the record for the Hope. We are fighting against west winds all the time which would soon take us to Cape Horn if we were going that way - however as I said the captain doesn't consider the ships strong enough to take the weight of water & I'm just as pleased for, the cold would be terrible down there they say this way is not too bad, for weather. I should get some good photos on this trip altho' goodness knows when I'll get them printed & developed. I'm trying to get 1 of an albatross, the birds known as "guardian of the west winds" - their size is amazing & they often fly quite close. The captain & mates amuze themselves with rifles trying to shoot them but have only scored 1 hit in many hundreds of shots.

Last edit over 3 years ago by Jannyp
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3. Easter Monday 24 days out. We are now in the Indian Ocean heading northwards & the weather has become much warmer altho' its by no means very warm yet. I was sick for another week after writing the last 2 pages thus making 2 weeks altogether which is a very long time. Now I am getting better slowly but its left me very thin and weak indeed. Easter is just finishing but it didn't make much difference to us except that we didn't have to work during the day on Good Friday or today (Easter Monday) as well as yesterday. We are always on duty every second watch & have to brace the yards (so as to catch as much wind in the sails as possible) whenever the wind changes or conditions demand it. The good meals disappeared on leaving Port Victoria & we've been getting the roughest food you could imagine. No butter at all & jam (marmalade usually!) once a week, plenty of margarine which I can't eat, nor the bread the cook bakes nor the strong black tea & coffee. Cocoa once a week. I live mostly on rice, porridge, potatoes and water (the latter, coming from Adelaide has a most disagreeable taste to which I'm slowly becoming used to). Mrs Wilson sent me 10/- especially to buy preserved fruits for their vitamens so a few dates, prunes, figs & raisins have been very acceptable at times although they won't last long. Over Easter the food improved considerably - we even had eggs, tinned green peas & [????] and [nice?] date slices, (made by steward) but that will finish now I expect. Some fish and stew have been quite bad and turned away by every one. I sigh for the Sunday night teas in Leslie St. of cheese, fresh bread, nice tea, salads, meat & cakes! Even for the "rough" (as I thought them) hand outs of food when I was travelling per bike. And then there are the bugs. They are in every bunk but mine is

Last edit about 3 years ago by Jannyp
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4. supposed to be the worst & I quite believe it. I imagined them to be the size of small ants, never having previously seen one but although some are, most of them are the size of flies & there are hundreds. I've lost a lot of sleep through them & wake up always scratching myself. We all have bug-hunts, mostly on Sundays, when we take everything out on deck. I'm getting rid of them slowly but there are lots yet. Twice I've gone out onto the hatches to sleep but it's rather cool for that yet.

Then there is the water problem. There is plenty for drinking, pumped up from below every morning but there are only 2 small tanks on deck that we get for washing. We are only allowed 2 inches per day in a margerine can (about 9" across) then save that in something to wash our clothes in & rinse them out in salt water. Boiling is, of course, out of the question & pegs are unprocurable so we tie things on the line with string. When we get to the Trade winds in the Atlantic Ocean the tropical rain will supply us with plenty I hear & just as well. Most of my clothing will be ready to throw overboard when we get to England. Just think of the terrific cold of Cape Horn added to all that, when one wades thru' water up to one's thighs, never had dry clothing or any way of getting warm and never knowing if at any moment you'll get washed overboard. All the romantic tales you read of of life aboard a windjammer are only to be found in print & certainly not on the ships itself.

I am in the 'forecastle (or fo'c'sle as its properly called) with all foreigners who speak together in Swedish, but who can & do speak English to me when they want to, (not all of them),

Last edit over 3 years ago by Jannyp
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5. The other Australian & the 2 English lads are in the apprentice house amidships where I often go for a talk. They each paid £25 or more for the trip & receive very few more privileges than me (not that there are any) except that they get 10/- a month & [??illegible too faint]. Fancy paying £25 to get 10/- back a month & live like this! Had I known conditions I could have bought a few foodstuffs aboard which, would make a world of difference. Such things as cocoa, jams, cheese, honey etc would keep the whole trip. Now-a-days almost any food can be got in tins & you'd think, they would bring on a good supply of such stuff but no & yet this ship is supposed to be, if not good, at least quite a fair ship for food. We had 2 sheep & 3 pigs aboard but have since killed & eaten the sheep, although the captain & mates got most of it & the crew very little. However, on both occasions they served up blood pancakes with the sheeps blood so that was twice I went hungry! As is to be expected, Gardiner (the other Australian) & I got most of the disagreeable jobs to do; the one I dislike most being cleaning out the pig pens every 2nd morning. When I was sick I'd get halfway thru' & then vomit the last nights meal up but now I'm getting used to it & don't mind so much. Well Easter is over & I'm wondering how you spent it - and how you are getting on. I hope you start a letter to me like this and add from time to time & tell me all of interest. Just think no news at all for few months; why there might be a war on in Europe when we get there - but I hope not.

Sunday April 26th We are still in the Indian Ocean but well westwards and nearing Africa; this is our 37th day out and we have been getting along fairly

Last edit about 3 years ago by Jannyp
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