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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