Rudely awakened at midnight by a downpour of warm rain. I have for the third time en voyage had my shaving mug stolen and am getting wild about it. The canteen has almost run out of cigarettes. I really prefer a pipe, but fall a prey to their handiness. I have also lost my penknife and am surprised to find to how many uses I have been putting its single small blunt blade. As the Presbyterian is beginning to stream out of me (as a little girl put it) I must now adjourn to the deck. The Neptune’s Court was screamingly funny. Officers and men in fearsome get-ups, Neptune, mermaids, and all sorts of monstrosities before whom representatives of all ranks were tried, lathered with white-wash, shaved with a huge wooden razor and hurled backwards into the bath. Even the O.C. of the ship took his turn. There were fiendish dental and surgical operations productive of large bones, strings of sausages and a doll. Towards the finish it degenerated into a rough house wherein the dunked dunked the dunkers, and unfortunately some sort of a row occurred amongst the officers which rather put a damper on the conclusion.
[Note – photographs of “Neptune’s Court” can be found at p.25 of the SS Corinthic ship’s magazine, Tiki Talk]
Walk March 