SS President Polk, Timor Sea

Heavy overcast all day. Position toward evening 20 or 30 miles south of the Dutch East Indian island of Sumba.

During extremely heavy rain squall in the mid afternoon a submarine was sighted about 1300 yards to port. Alarm and scatter as before. Outcome unknown — most probably nil.

Another destroyer showed up from astern and joined the convoy early this morning. The slow old Navy tanker along with us most of rammed something fairly recently, as there is an assortment of holes in her bow at the water line, plus a lot of bent plates and missing paint. When she rears her bow out of the seas all of her gashes pour water. Despite all of this and her slow speed, she has had the effrontery to desire second-place (ours) after the Houston, in the convoy — like a char woman trying to force her way into an Asterbilt debut. Poor deluded old thing.