Day-to-day journal
[Present location:]
Lat. 25° 53' N
Long. 163° 05" E
Dist. 354 mi.
Av. Speed 15.01 mph
Mon. Mar 7: Filled with good intentions for work, it's bright cool, sunny. Said hello to Shag and stayed until after 10. Session with J. on time, hour angles, tec. Morse - I get progressively worse.
[Present location:]
Lat. 27° 27' N
Long. 168° 55" E
Dist. 327 mi.
Av. Speed 13.85 mph
Tue. Mar 8: J. woke me at 6. At 9:00 had a session on longitude with J. before I went topside. Capt. set me problems until lunch.
Warm enough for Sam and me to have a sun bath on top of #3 Hatch.
Walk with Sam after dinner, visited Shag, then read Sam's articles until 10:45. Lesser Sundas Maluccas. Feel as tho I begin to have some small idea about them.
Side note: For those unaware, like me, the Lesser Sundas Maluccas are part of the water they were bobbing upon, as they worked their way from Manila to Los Angeles.
This was the penultimate leg of her globe trot.
[Present location:]
Lat. 29° 01' N
Long. 174° 57" E
Dist. 333 mi.
Av. Speed 14.10 mph Wed.
Mar. 9: Spent two hours finding out where we were at 8:55 this morning. Capt. gave me the works - Lat., chron., D.R., H.A.T.S., polar dist., Co-Lat., and I fumbled thru, making a mistake in arithmetic on every line.
Side note: For those wanting to learn along with Helen:
- Lat. = latitude – opposite of Long. For how to find it, see chron.
- chron. = chronometer – very maritime-y, sleek looking device developed in the 18th century that, through celestial navigation, tells you your Long.
- D.R. = dead reckoning – guesstimating the position of moving things (like ships) based on moving things of the past (like previous ships). Don’t quote me on any of that though. Here is a better way of putting it.
- H.A.T.S = Highest Astronomical Tide(s) – guesstimating the highest of high tides in various weather conditions.
- polar dist. = polar distance – astronomy + geometry.
- Co-Lat = Co-Latitude – latitude + trigonometry.
While first disseminating Helen’s adventures, I envisioned that maybe I, too, would learn how planes fly or that I would study celestial navigation, because how cool would that be. But plans were quickly squashed at the sight of so much math. So I learned very little, but did purchase a replica sextant in homage (below left).
The sextant that Helen is holding below looks bigger than mine, but mine says it’s a genuine replica that works and such. But with my studies on hold, the sextant is currently serving as a nicknack… one that acts as a perfect segue into a good brag about my Great Aunt Helen.
Cold and raw and rainy. Got out my green knit dress I've carried around the world and this time first time cold enough for it. Had only a few minutes to dress for dinner and had to put it on tho it smells musty. Went over for some Morse, but couldn't stand the smell of the dress so Jim, Shag and I paced the deck to air me out. Beautiful moon but frightfully blowy.
Side note: If ‘musty’ is worse than ‘men-at-sea-for-five-months’, then musty must be dealt with, even at risk of being blown into the Pacific.
[Present location:]
Lat. 30° 32' N
Long. 179° 13" E
Dist. 317 mi.
Av. Speed 13.00 mph
Also Wed. March 9 - Got out the flannels and sweatshirt, for winter has come, and we are a heaving up and down over this wave and that wave. Shag and I watched our wake boil and burble.
Side note: No R.E.Is then for water-wicking, temperature-gauged, ultra performance gear. Back then they had to rough it in flannels… or snuggle in them, and maybe that’s what Helen and Shag were doing while watching the heaving, burbly sea ❤️.
2nd longitude - comes out at 180° 13" E'., which isn't possible - I would have problems like this just at the date line. Read. Had a chance to live 1 yesterday over, and did no better with it. Have an attention span of a very few minutes. Don't like to read indoors and too raw and windy outside. Nuts to knitting. Shag and I especially close today.
Side note: She sounds uncharacteristically annoyed until the last line. But that last line, like most lines relating Shag, is characteristically vague.
[Present location:]
Lat. 30° 48' N
Long. 173° 32" W
Dist. 294 mi.
Av. Speed 12.48 mph
Thru. Mar. 10 Worked another long. Got exactly the same as the bridge huzzahs! Warm enough for a little while after lunch for a sun bath on Hatch 3. Aired my suitcase. It's hard to keep things from getting musty, and since the canvas went up again yesterday, it's dark as a pocket in our room.
Side note: I wonder if she had just one suitcase for the five month trip. She’d mostly be on a freight boat, but did need items for formal situations at ports like dinners and dancing. Maybe she had suitcase like one of these from the era. And maybe a toiletries bag like that. A camera, film, a few books. A tiny journal with minuscule penmanship. See journal picture below, on the right topped by my old iPhone XR, which was a wee 3″ x 6″.
My late uncle Bob (Helen’s nephew), bless his heart, transcribed every word of her tiny-scripted daily goings-on from this trip — and her lists and measurements and charts and weights and prices and side observations — into his computer in the early 2000s. He did this all by typing while squinting at the tiny text, and using a magnifying glass here and there. He then printed it, 70 pages, and sent paper copies to the family, including me.
When I ultimately read it, I excitedly underlined and starred and circled things, and bracketed sections, and wrote in the margins. This made the software I used to scan and digitally transcribe the printed version, confused, and it made a lot of ###&&&()^s. I had to re-transcribe a lot of it. This is how we learn lessons.
And while we’re talking about Bob, the future heroic transcriber… in March of 1938, he was a dapper three year old in New Jersey. He will play a big part in Helen’s life many decades after this trip.
Morse after 3 day rest and no better for the vacation. Gave Capt. a start when I went up at 9:30 p.m. and knocked just as Lady MacBeth was murdering sleep.
Oh, the bookkeeping joys of a master. Three kinds of insurance for every member of the European crew, health, old age pensions, ship wages and draws to be paid in every kind of currency. Debits and credits from London, from the agents.
Visit with Jim from 11 - 1. Wonder if my influence on him has been good or otherwise. Washed my hair at 3 p.m., can't get soap out, hair gummy and dandruffy.
Side note: I can’t figure out what the murdering sleep reference means in this context. Was Capt. having a restless sleep? Was he snoring? Reading Shakespeare?
[Present location:]
Lat. 31° 01' N
Long. 167° 11" W
Dist. 327 mi.
Av. Speed 13.87 mph
Fri. Mar. 11: Another double page of longitudes. Typed from lunch until tea time, making copy of Capt.'s ship adoption letters. Ruthie and I took a fast one from stem to stern - cold dismal day, tho the sea is very calm.
Side note: To close out, let’s look at some of Helen’s beloved lists and study notes and measurements and diagrams from said journal, all neat and tiny and precise.
Flying Under the Radar 
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