We’re back at sea for a bit before another stop in the Dutch East Indies. Time at sea means Ship School, i.e. Helen following around the engineers and captain and asking them a million questions. Some fruits of her efforts:
She also made her own diagrams, because if you can ink really straight lines, not to mention a perfectly round circle, who wouldn’t? Not to diminish, but there could also have been a ruler and compass involved, but still, A+ penmanship.
The Day-to-Day Journal
Woke at 4 and had a look around — still unloading. Back to bed and vaguely aware of ship leaving port but too dead asleep to get out.
No interest in breakfast, slept until 9 — up and washed clothes, hair, read. Made no appearance in public until lunch on Capt.'s deck after inspecting Batik, heads, etc. collected by Mr. Leedom.
Side note: ‘Heads’ could mean many things, right? I cannot help but picture shrunken heads and Mr. Leedom, who seems to be hitching a ride between the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, as a Indiana Jones type.
Left Shag before 9 — topside for a beer. Slept out in the warm balmy air. Didn't stir form 11 — 6, best I've done yet. James woke me to say the deck would be washed down in a moment.
Side note: If she slept until nine and left Shag before nine, would there not have been an overlap?? But maybe the second nine is P.M., since there is beer? She is so detailed in most aspects but so not with Shag, which is what I want to know about. And also now the heads.
MACASSAR Tue. Feb. 15: Shoal water and many islands this a.m. Was in the chart room getting an idea about the coast of the Celebes. At 1:30 we were turning around in the little harbor — came alongside very neatly.
Side note: Shoal water is water over a shoal (raised underwater sandbars that can make for shallows and stuck ships). Each shoal had to be charted (that link is a shoal chart from the opposite side of the world, but a shoal is a shoal). Remember that Helen is in Ship School so shoals would all be important.
I wormed my way into the chart room on a ship once (by bragging about my Great Aunt Helen and her freight boating), and in 2022 they still had paper maps, though were also using other more advanced technologies.
Ashore at 2:00, besieged by taxi men and by bicycle boys with seats in front. Funny looking contraptions, but quite amusing to ride in except it's impossible to walk without being pursued by dozens of them, getting in the way and ringing their bells. Macassar is a shanty town: rows of open-front shops along 5 streets, an open square in front of Govt. buildings and hotels and not much else except shanty dwellings on stilts and a big Chinese graveyard. The bicycle boys were much interested in where we came from, how much my watch cost, etc., and passed the word around. Came on again at 4:00, just after we were back on the boat, sailing delayed from 5:00 to 7:00, and at 7 Shag and I went ashore for 1 1/2 hour. Sailed at 9:30.
Side note: A fast-talking American woman, who is probably wearing pants, riding in a basket in the front of a bicycle, flanked by bell-ringing children, in the Dutch East Indies in 1938, on the brink of WWII, seems cinematic. Doesn’t it (hint)??
Also, there’d been Chinese settlements all over the region since the 15th Century and their graveyards were always at risk of pillaging and desecration, and one can learn more here.
[Present location:]
Lat. 2° 15' S; Long. 118° 44" E; Dist. 203 mi.; Av. Speed 14.16 mph We.
Feb. 16: Descended to the depths of the steward's storeroom and resurrected my knitting, it's high time something was done about it. Worked long and earnestly, accomplished about 1 1/4 in. Called on Shag at 9:00, 5:00, 7:30.
Side note: They are now back at sea and coordinates. But also three calls — one in the morning and two in the evening — to Mr. Shaaaag-y.
James took me on a personally conducted tour of the boat today: fore peak (and tank), fo'castle head — windlass for anchor, winch for derricks, mast house, bollards (for making fast ropes), fair leads (less friction in paying out rope), anchor chain locker, 6 deep tanks (4 in #3 hatch, fore peak, after peak), side houses (bottle room for CO2), amidships — weather deck, passenger deck, Capt.'s deck, bridge, monkey island, engineers accommodations — boat deck, main deck (strength deck) runs length of ship under weather deck, poop deck aft of hatch #4, docking bridge aft over steering house.
Side note: That is the most Helen-y paragraph ever. Remember, Helen wanted to study engineering at Columbia University when she started there in 1919, but could not (the first woman to graduate from Columbia with a degree in engineering was in 1942). But neener to them, because she learned about it anyway, and took a lot of notes doing so.
[Present location:] Lat. 3° 34' N; Long. 119° 34" E; Dist. 353 mi.
Thru. Feb 17: Tried to sleep out last night but such a gale blowing the hammock whipped up and down like an electric horse. I got up once and it turned over at once, spilling pillows, cover — gave up and went in. Wash day again — knit industriously, read a bit, didn't leave the passenger deck until 5:30 p.m. Boat deck with Shag after dinner. More knitting before I turned in. Crossed the equator for the 4th time last night.
Side note: The electric horse was meant for exercise. Calvin Coolidge had one and was mocked because of it. It’s a fun story, which also involves the Kellogg of cereal fame, who swore by the things, and who also had an electric camel. Since Helen studied and taught athletics, maybe she had tried riding an electric horse (or camel).
[Present location:] Lat. 8° 05' N; Long. 121° 04" E; Dist. 291 mi.; Av. Speed 12.12 mph
Fri. Feb. 18: Ship at half speed about midnight so there was little wind, a gorgeous clear moonlight night and delicious sleep in the hammock until 6 a.m. Read an hour, knit and hour before breakfast. Hour with Shag, knitting, and then topside to write letters. Cargo list up to date after lunch.
Side note: Gawd, to drift off in a self-made hammock, slightly swaying on ship deck, on a windless moonlit night. Also cinematic, no?? HINT.
Flying Under the Radar 