SSRN SEAVIEW

Dear Mom,

So far, it’s all been pretty booring. But I was surprised to see the Captain and Admiral in conference at the Nose window about 0300. So our mission of checking seawater, yeah, that’s right...is more important than I thought. But would you loose sleep over it?

When I asked the Chief just what it was all about, he just said, ‘Shut up and Get back to work’. Sheesh, it’s like it’s the only sentence in his vocabulary.

Nobody seems too anxious that the Skipper’s up at wierd hours and that he has dark circles under his eyes. But it’s his job to be on top of things 24 hours a day, even booring insignifant stuff like salinity surveys.

When I asked Mr. Morton what was going on, he said, “Too much salt makes the Mermaid’s hair fall out, and the Skipper likes a girl with thick hair.” Has a real good sense of humor. But he did admit there’ve been reports of some mutant fish that have been caught in the area and Nelson thinks the salt level may have something to do with it, and that this is just a scientific investigation and we have nothing to worry about.

I asked if I could go out on one of the dives to collect samples, but I’m not really qualified, officially anyway, so it’s doubtful. But he said he’d think about it.

Well, I’ll tuck this away until it can be mailed.

Oh, yeah, Ski, he’s one of the plankowners, you know, one of the guys that have been with the boat since day one, found me a watercolor box in one of the supply rooms that Miss Edith, that’s Nelson’s spinster sister, put aboard for the crew’s ‘recreation’, two years ago. I think he was just happy to put me to the test.

Here’s the result.

The Chief’s on his high horse again, so it’s off to scrub out the crew’s head. The important work I do for my country, but I wonder if the Navy knows they’re using a trained seaman like me as a skivie? Yeah. They do. Oh well. Love,

Brad