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[Page 17]
for we passed them both, the third day out I think most of us had been all over the ship, & knew our way about alright our ship was armed, we had 2 guns crews of naval Reserves on board, & on our poop we had 2, 4.7 mounted in case we had to defend ourselves but they were useless against anything but armed merchantmen like ourselves, the way our troop decks were arranged we used to eat & sleep in the same place all along the side mess tables were built running crossway's in the ship all these tables were numbered & each table had a number of men (36) detailed off for the trip, each table had 2 permanent mess-orderlys who were exempt from
all other duties, while they were on the job, after breakfast every one had to get up on deck for an hour to give the orderly's time to get things cleaned up down below in time for the ships inspection, which was made every morning by the ships captain. Dr. & some of our officers, after this was over the ship was free for the rest of the day, we slept in hammocks slung from hooks, let into the ceiling each hammock was also numbered so as there would be no necessary confusion, & each man had his own number, we were all supplied with 2 snow white blankets each, we used to have some fun I can tell you of a night rocking one anothers hammocks some of