On board an oil tanker on the way from the Clyde to Curacao

Sunday, 20th October 1946

Dear Claudia and Pinkie

Well, we've certainly had some wild weather. I don't know whether I will have any success writing. Of course it's hard to say what it would seem like on an ordinary steamer - but we go up and down sideways, front and back, and sometimes it feels circular. The past two nights have been a crashing and banging from beginning to end, with everything falling from everywhere, and after it gets to the floor it hits one wall and then the other. Surprisingly, it hasn't been even as cold as Edinburgh. I have felt not quite right at times, but neither Hugo nor I have missed a meal. A side had to be constructed for my bunk, for I couldn't wedge myself in, and was awake most of the night slipping about. I can't remember ever being tossed around in bed, but maybe I just forget. The seas don't look so high, but there is a very big swell. Hugo and I were on the tip top this afternoon, watching the spirit level go to an angle of 25o.

I was discouraged this morning to see from the charts that after these three days we were on a latitude with Jersey! and we have been making a pretty southerly course, heading straight from north Ireland to the Azores. We reach the Azores Tuesday night, but I see even that isn't as far south as Virginia. It is fun being allowed in the chart room and on the bridge. In fact I have been instructed to leave Hugo on the bridge when he is alone, as being the safest part of the ship. The man on watch seems to have nothing much to do either, and makes a good nurse. We have to be allowed anywhere, I reckon, for even that's small enough. Our cabins are right behind the chart room. There is no public room, but down a ladder is the captain's cabin and lounge, and he repeats again and again that we are to use the lounge as our own. Luckily, I have a chair in my cabin, and the top drawer of the bureau pulls out to form a desk. But Mrs Batter, whose daughter chose their room, hasn't space for a chair. As both the bed and the settee have a high plywood wall forming a crib, there is literally no place to sit.

We also share the captain's bath, and there are usually one or more officers in the lounge from which the bathroom leads off. It is all very matey. No salt water. Not too much cleanliness either, but great efforts on everyone's part to make us comfortable. The captain insists on fixing our baths, for fear we will scald ourselves. In fact you would think we were personal friends come to visit the captain. He brings out sherry, gin, whiskey, and there's nothing you can do about paying him back. There are two tables in the messroom, and our offspring sit at one with the senior officers. There seem to be about a dozen officers - forty-two men all told. We were signed on as crew, at one shilling a month, and signed away any private rights of complaint in case of injury or anything - no rebukes if the ship's destination was changed, and we were landed in Timbuctoo.

The food isn't good, but adequate. Breakfast at 8:00, lunch 12:00, and supper at 5:00. Most convenient with Hugo. We also get tea and sandwiches at 8:00, quite unnecessary. The tea is the worst item. Vile milk that is so sweet that it tastes like bucketfuls of sugar. I gave it up and today I was given a lime which will do me for several days' worth of tea. He has also given us grapefruit and oranges from Trinidad - very good. By the way, the chocolate bars I bought on Princes Street (at Crawfurd's, I think) called Clinton, are the nicest I ever had. One is coffee-flavoured, one grapefruit, and they really have a definite taste of it.

21st October

Today has been better, and last night is the first one Hugo hasn't had me up a half-dozen times. He slept till 5:30, but got up then. However, whoever is on the bridge takes care of him. Today both kids spent hours with the typewriter, but Hugo pinched his fingers and let out awful squeaks and had the whole ship excited. The captain thought he had got tangled in the steering gear. They are all terrified about his getting hurt, and it certainly is a dangerous place. To start with, being wartime, and no wood, even the decks are iron plate, and an ordinary fall would be most painful. All the deck rails are just a fence, a fattish bar at top, bottom and in the middle. In a few spots there is nothing at all. The steps are all wide ladders. As I say, we live in the front of the ship, but the dining room is in the back, and a long skinny bridge connects the front and back. Of course, the flat part is where the oil is stored, now full of water, but some of the tanks are always open, and a horror to fall into. They say the men swim in them when the weather is warmer, but a scum of oil floats on top. She carries three million gallons of petrol. Doesn't it sound a dangerous cargo.

Mrs Batter wondered who on earth Mrs Patten could be, and didn't know me by sight, but knew when I said I was a Chapman. The suitcase contained everything I can remember leaving. We were not long going through formalities (they never did take our ration books), and we were on board in time for lunch, after a twelve-mile drive to some part of the Clyde.

Barbara has her girl of ten with her. The one eighteen is in London studying music. The little girl Judy has been in bed except for yesterday and today, not really sick, but not well, so I don't know yet how well she and Hugo will get on. She reads a great deal. We haven't progressed very far in our reading. It certainly is a different matter when they don't want to try.

Mrs Batter is very pretty, and absolutely remarkable to be a woman of forty-five. I swear she doesn't look any older than I do, and her hair isn't nearly as grey. In fact it isn't at all grey. And she is very nice and friendly and easy to get on with, but my gracious, never in my born days have I ever known someone talk about clothes as much. I have seen every single thing she possesses. At first she used to call me to come in and see so and so, now she walks in here with a pair of shoes, a hat, a nightie, a slip, and I have to think of something to say. And she asks me a million questions, what make-up do I use, why do I use it, do I think it's good for me, what colour should she buy if she used it? Do I like the way she does her hair? Do I think she should do it in some other way? Have I any clothes I could sell her (imagine, and she knows I have next to nothing), and I hadn't walked in the room before she was telling me that her family had taken from her any respectable winter clothes and how she looked so terrible and shabby, and how dirty she was, whereas she looks perfectly all right and not a bit dirty, but I am tired of telling her. I just don't see how she can have much sense, even if she is very capable.

Bob and Rosa have bought a house. The garden isn't as big as Bob wanted, but I can't make out how big it is. She has had dinner with them, but I don't imagine they see much of each other, nor do I suppose she likes them even though she hasn't said a word against them, but she has nothing to say for Philip Reade, and does not expect to enjoy Betty. She still plays a great deal of tennis, and he even took voice lessons while on leave. He is also on his way back on a banana boat, only a few days ahead of her. Nobody seems to know the possibilities of my getting a flight to Miami. I may have to go to Trinidad - or maybe Jamaica. She expects to fly direct so there must be a service that way.

I don't believe there is very much more to say. Today is the 22nd, and the sea is as smooth as glass. No sun, or it would be perfect. I have on slacks and a sweater, but don't feel I can wear them much longer. But it is a bit early to start on the three cottons, especially if I am to have a protracted stay in Curacao. I am going to try to buy a few things for Lee and send them back by this ship, in case other things from home don't arrive in time. The men seem to think Curacao is full of nice American things, but I will wait and see.

I will get you to send this on to Mrs Patten as I won't repeat about the ship. I will mail her a short letter in order that she gets some stamps. This I may send back on the ship.