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Location
TBA
Age
18 Years

17th December 1941

Up to now the weather has been very bad and the first two days we made very poor speed because the engine kept stopping. At one time there were no ships to be seen anywhere and it seemed as though the convoy had completely scattered through the very bad weather and poor visibility during the night. At first we had very little ballast and consequently rolled violently; however, we did pump in some ballast eventually and then began to ship some heavy seas. We have received an SOS from a Norwegian ship which is or was leaking badly. They had to abandon her.

Those that have been on this ship for several trips, are beginning to feel the strain now, and all the talk is for leave. The present news has done a lot to lower everyone’s spirits and faith in our army and the American effort is fast failing. The 3rd mate – who is getting married in May – wishes he could leave earlier. Three of the new gunners have been sick all the time. It seems strange to see chaps in naval uniform being sick.

Today, the second mate was hoisting a flag signal on the weather side (incorrect) and the halyard fouled the trigger of a P.A.C rocket (special anti-aircraft rocket). A strong wind was blowing and the rocket went off. The coil of wire attached to it cut through our main aerial. It took us 2 hours to fix it.