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Wednesday 22nd. Still sailing in grand style, wind S.W. We did
238 miles in thte last 24 hrs., seems almost incredible, after our
struggles on the voyage up. The sails brought from "Archibald
Russel" in Hull were lugged out of No.3 hold today with much
"heaving and ho-ing" - all very dirty and damp looking. Almost at
once it commenced to rain, so they were all dragged back again!
A good deal of hauling up and down of sails - but it is to give the
"green horns" some practice. Ship rolling a little. Ann not
feeling "so good" and seems as if she may have caught my cold.
Weather definitely has a milder feel. The cook made some excellent
Chelsea buns to-day and Steward some coffee cake. The Steward also
makes very good bread - he is a hard working little man - in appear-
ance he might be out of a comic strip!

Thursday. A woke me this morning and said she felt "lousy", and
then retired to bed again. She seems very sick to me. It seems
more than an ordinary cold, have done what I could for her, but it's
a bit difficult as we have a list and are also heaving about quite a
lot. At about 1p.m. a heavy squall suddenly struck us - there
was the usual "minor panic" and much shouting and rushing about - 2
stay sails went to ribbons, but several other sails were furled
without damage. Several rain squalls have made the deck slippery,
so going back aft is rather perilous when carrying food. I made
A some Benger's in the galley -rather dangerous standing by the
stove and all the hot water kettles. Several boys came in and there
was a general discussion on trawling - several of them seemed to
have been as far north as Murmansk.

Xmas Eve, Dec. 24th. A very busy day. A still hors de combat, so
took her breakfast in to her and got clean bed-linen from Steward
and made her bunk for her. Steward taking a very poor view of
the passenger turning "mess girl", and vice versa. Next, I fixed
the Xmas tree for the mess-room (mat.sal) table where all the
"after guard" were having Xmas dinner together. It was a fiddling
job and took most of the rest of the morning. After getting A's
lunch, I tracked down the Xmas trees that came on board at Pt. Talbot,
the fo'castles had taken them, but had no decorations, so I took
them to the saloon and decorated them with silver streamers - cotton
wool and holly. The boys seemed really grateful, it was a pleasure
to do them. Hectic preparations in galley and pantry for Xmas
Eve dinner - it seems the custom to celebrate Xmas then. Cooks and
Steward working like beavers. Chief cook and Mess-boy arranged
the mat-sal table, so I brought over the small Xmas tree and six
candles in more or less improved candle-sticks, also decorated
port-holes with greenery and silver streamers. It all looked very
fesstive and the smörgasbord (various tinned fish, caviare, salads,
ham, sausage, cheese, bread and butter) looked most delectable.
Capt. entertained mates and "sails" to before-dinner drinks in the
saloon. I was apparently expected to be present, but didn't
realise it, and anyway was busy in the mat.sal, until it was time
to dress. Finally, about 7p.m. we sat down to dinner - 15 men
and myself (A. couldn't make the grade). First there was "yin"
with the smörgasbord, then there was boiled salted cod and boiled