January 2

January 2

Still on shakedown. Had small boat practice all day & night. Record time was set for lowering the boats. 28 boats in the water in 48 minutes. Church froze to the Jacobs ladder in total darkness and had to be hauled aboard by a line. I don’t think I will ever like these boats. To dangerous. Weather is below freezing.

Jacobs ladder: A Jacob's ladder is a portable ladder made of rope or metal and used primarily as an aid in boarding ships. Originally, the Jacob's ladder was a network of line leading to the skysail on wooden ships. The name alludes to the biblical Jacob, said to have dreamed that he climbed a ladder to the sky.

A Modern Sailor Climbing a Jacob’s Ladder

January 1

January 1

We are on the water in the Chesapeak bay (Shakedown.) It is misserably cold but the boats still go in the water. Ice formed on all the boats & men. They most froze to death. My hand is still in a cast so I am aboard ship where it is warm.

Mary Ellen was borned yesterday Dec 31 - 44 (details latter.)

hand . . . in a cast: He broke his right hand in a fall at a roller-skating rink early in his Naval service.

In 1966, when I was in Army Officer Basic training at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, I happened to be looking through the diary and came across the name of Leonard Loutner, one of WWM’s shipmates, with an address and phone number in Indianapolis. I ventured to phone the number and ended up having a pleasant half-hour conversation with Mr. Loutner, still at the same address 21 years later, who told me that WWM had been drinking and was doing some daredevil speed skating—a big grin on his face, skating faster and faster with each turn round the rink—when he fell and broke the hand. Other details of date, place, circumstances, have, sadly, been lost.

Mary Ellen: Mary Ellen Morgan May, his daughter.