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[Page 131]
hymns. 10/1/16 Today the sea is very high & washing over the foc'sle at times. The Afric is rolling badly & many of the men are sick. Today the bread is sour &is enough to disgust anyone. The porridge tastes like flour & water paste whilst the remainder is beyond our appetites.
Charlie Williams secured position as seventh engineer this afternoon & took up his watch from 4 - 8 with the second engineer. Holmes also made MP his hours being 10 – 2 11/1/16 At 6am land could just be seen out of the "window" as Fat Wild says [the Lleuwin]. The sea is much calmer but still with a ground swell owing to our proximity to land.
Hoppy takes mess orderly today & certainly looks well with a bucket of water & a scrubbing brush. At meals there is often a wild grab to catch the plates & other articles as they shoot along the table & off the end. Holmes was greatly distressed owing to spilling curry in the scramble which swamped down over his equipment. The men made some diversion from the monotony of lolling about by throwing coal & spuds at the albatross. One old bird called Dirty Dick, because of his brown mottling, was the target made most of & on being hit on the neck he displayed unusual discomfort by almost losing his balance, "Scotty" a Scotchman whom Eric said was too mean to whistle went on sick parade today – not for