SS President Polk

Wind and seas increased throughout the night. Wind, from the Northwest – cool – 35 to 45 knots. Ship pitching heavily – at times lifting 100 feet of her bow out of the water and bring it down with a slap that jars the whole ship and sends spray shooting out 200 feet broadside. Spent about an hour up on the forecastle leaning over the bow watching it all. At times the seas were only 10 feet away, and then in a split second they were hundred feet away – exposing the whole bow. Is this the roaring 40s?

Got well soaked up in the bow in the afternoon. Movie called off because of heavy seas. Finished reading Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” Excellent story, although the most morbid of Dostoevsky’s I’ve read.