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Merwin Co., Robert L.
Bredin Exp. - West Indies

[[underlined]]AIR MAIL[[/underlined]]        February 28, 1956

Robert L. Merwin Company
Fredericksted
St. Croix, V. I.

Gentlemen:

We are just in receipt of a letter dated February 27, from Mr. W. H. Trauth, of the Washington, D. C. office, with regard to tickets Nos. 20001 and 20002, issued to me, Waldo L. Schmitt, and to Mr. Fenner A. Chace, Jr., respectively, for passage on the ALCOA RUNNER V/93, about April 21st, from St. Croix to U. S. East Coast Port.

With this I send you the Passenger Department Questionnaires for Mr. Chace and myself. We expect to be in St. Croix on April 21st, unless you advise us to arrive at an earlier date. I hope that the ALCOA RUNNER will not depart before the 21st. You will note on my copy of the questionnaire that I have listed 17 boxes. These represent the collecting outfit which we will have used during the preceding five weeks in the Caribbean area, together with specimens collected for the National Museum. In this outfit there will be 3 tanks and a box of bottles containing a total of about 41 gallons of 70% alcohol contaminated with formalin, used as a preservative for our specimens. These 17 boxes occupy possibly 50 cubic feet or less, and will have a total weight of approximately 1,128 pounds.

We have, through Mr. Trauth, been seeking passage for a third member of our party, Mr. Albert C. Smith. We realize that all passenger accommodations to date are occupied, and so there is no hope at present of his becoming a passenger on this sailing of the ALCOA RUNNER. However, it has occurred to us that it might be possible to assign him on the ship ROSTER in some capacity that would enable him to travel with us to the states. If that is not possible, he will fly home from St. Thomas, where we will arrive on the 19th of April.

Our cruise through the West Indies will be aboard the diesel schooner FREELANCE, Capt. V. E. B. Nicholson, P. O. Box 103, St. John's, Antigua, B.W.I. We depart from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on March 13, and expect to arrive in Antigua on or about the first of April. I mention this in case you may wish to get in touch with us during the cruise. Nicholson has aboard a radio telephone and is in touch with his Antigua headquarters twice each day.

We are looking forward to meeting you and traveling home on the ALCOA RUNNER.

Sincerely,

Waldo L. Schmitt
Head Curator
Department of Zoology

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