Jun 12, 1949 

You steer for an hour and then you are off to either be a lookout or to chip paint and paint. Painting is a never ending job. One's activities when not steering are almost mindless so you can enjoy the down time and the beautiful scenery.. the birds sailing on the currents orThe sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too

impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but

lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches.

Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach --

waiting for a gift from the sea.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

PEACE AT SEA

May 21, 1949

            Dave and I leaned against the railing of the Mosbay and watched the longshoremen ashore slip the lines in preparation for hauling out of Sydney. A tugboat nuzzled up to the ship ready to hook up and transport us out of the harbor and out to sea and on to Brisbane.

Three months ashore had satiated us for the activities and work of the land. It had been a lot of fun.. Swimming at Bondi beach. Doing things that a couple of 21 year old male sailors do. After signing off in Sydney we just played for awhile and then our resources got low. We were too proud to write home for money but not too proud to find a job.

With not much money left we got jobs at the Ian Marr Iron Foundry.

The wages were not much but anything was better than nothing. In order to go to work we had to join the International IronWorkers Union. We signed up and the next thing we knew we were involved in a strike. Our job didnÕt pay much but we were anxious to get back to work. The strike was called for the day before the Easter Vacation. But that is another story which I will come back to later.

            It has always seemed to me that "peace" is a state of mind often associated with a place or an event or a condition. It is the indestructibility that one feels when confronted with weather changes or a change in social activities. Most people can go through life with the serenity associated with being in a comatose or "brain dead" state. Talk to your friends and ask how many of them have ever been in a tornado or a typhoon or a battle in war. Right off the bat, half of them had never been in a war because we didn't draft women. If some of those left didn't live near the Atlantic or Pacific coast they probably had never seen the winds of wrath or scary discomfort of howling winds and the visual display of the aftermath of a tornado unless of course, you lived in Kansas as we did. It is hard to determine which is the more frightening; the noise or the visuals.

For the moment we were at peace.

The Skipper or quartermaster (I don't know who determines these things), always put us together to share a cabin. For this part of our time at sea we had a port looking out to sea. The very first billet for us was down by the ladder to the Engine room. Word had filtered throughout the crew that a couple of "ladies" had been stowed away on our ship with a destination of Brisbane The Skipper and command crew didn't approve of women on a ship but seemed oblivious to situation. Of course we all tried to get a glimpse of them but they seemed to be taken care of.

When we were at sea our duties consisted of 4-hour watches. That means that every time the clock came at 12 I was to go to work. I would come on duty and either steer or chip paint (or other deck duties) or also watch out for ships and dangers at sea. Dave had the same set of duties only he began at when the clock was at 4. As we left Sydney we went up the coast of on the East Side of Australia. This included the Great Barrier Reef. Frequently Dolphins or Porpoises swam along side of us. These "Leapers" would create green phosphorous foam trails. Sailors told stories about if "one fell overboard one of the fish would push the sailor ashore". They would always know of a ship on which this happened as an example of the truth of the stories. So our protectors were prized and we were to leave them be.

Another specie of the South Pacific was the Albatross. They are beautiful graceful birds as they glided along beside us. It was like we had a convoy leading us in to Brisbane. Some of us superstitious sailors feel like these are our protectors and some remember the poem of the Ancient Mariner who shot one.

What fun for a couple of clod kickers from Kansas!

Brisbane was another city that started as a penal colony and was populated by criminals from England. That shouldn't have surprised us since that had some parallels with the good Old USA.

I had brought this map in to see why we were going there. I often we crew members didn't know why we were going where we were going because it wasn't really our concern but rumors always floated. Dave and I had as a major objective "going around the world". We had two dictates to guide us. 1. NO REGRETS and, 2. NO LOOKING BACK. I would guess that is probably true for us today.

The "Ladies"???? Neither Dave or I were assigned to watch them.

The following will show you the different ports in Indonesia that we were in and out of for many months while transporting oil.

Map of Indonesia

From the time we left Manila in the Philippines in December 7 until we signed off in Sydney Australia on February 14 we had sailed through uncharted mine fields and sailed to Melbourne, Australia, and many islands in and around Sumatra.

.

As W. Wordsworth says.

At Bombay, India after docking in Yokohama and Tokyo,Japan, and Singapore, Oeban, and Singapore.