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which is next to ours. It is pretty discouraging to have all your books and papers swimming about on the cabin floor while you wonder just how water-tight your metal trunks and suitcases are. Apparently no damage was done, and sailors came and mopped up for us in short order. 

We passed a ship one evening about nine o'clock; it was sailing along with no lights at all, but flashed on its riding lights for a few moments while it was close to us. Our radio man asked them who they were, but they did not answer, apparently a French or British freighter that did not want to give its position to a possibly listening German raider. We ourselves turn on all the lights at night, and have a big flood-light on each side to illuminate the American flag painted on both port and starboard sides of the ship. [[strikethrough]] An [[/strikethrough]] [[underlined]] o [[/underlined]] ther flag^[[s]] [[strikethrough]] is [[/strikethrough]] ^[[are]] painted on the boat deck, and one on a hatch cover. Nobody can mistake our nationality at any rate. ^[[(1)]]

Days are monotonous when the weather is bad. There is no place to sit except in the cabin which gets pretty stuffy or in the dining room, which is much too warm. Every step one takes has to be a careful one, for it is difficult to keep one's balance. Going back and forth across the open deck is hazardous with great waves breaking completely over it. I got a nice salt water shower one night most unexpectedly. Glasses and soup plates slide off the table. Everybody has a few bruises, but nobody has been really hurt, which is lucky, with no doctor on board. 

The night of the 23rd was the roughest, with waves crashing against the ship, and breaking over the bridge at regular intervals. Most of the portholes leak a little. However, we plow along, making about 230 miles a day, and one finds our all over again what a lot of punishment a ship can really take. And it is a good chance to get caught up on reading. If you lie in your bunk with a book in front of you, it takes your mind off the cockroaches. Nobody has been seasick, except Miss Nelson, and she has now recovered.

February 24

A beautiful bright blue day, with the sea subsiding. The steering wheel broke early this morning, and the ship is now being steered from the poop, while the engineer tries to mend it. It is the first day that has been calm enough to enjoy being out on deck, or to get out the typewriter. In rough weather the carriage doesn't slide properly, and one keeps on writing letters on top of each other. 

^[[(1)]] All night a watchman stands on the forecastle head, and as the bells ring at half-hour intervals, he echoes them on his bell, and calls our "Eight bells and all lights burning," so that the man on the bridge will know that "our flag is still there."