SS President Polk, Thursday Island

Through Torres Strait a little past dawn to Thursday Island where we met the USS Houston and the destroyers Edwards and Whipple. A very welcome sight indeed. They were anchored awaiting us and we did not see them until we had rounded one of the hundreds of small islands thereabouts and suddenly found ourselves close aboard them. After about an hour’s wait we started off after them in an easterly direction. The next stop must certainly be Darwin.

This Torres Strait is filled with hundreds of islands of varying sizes compose a reddish-brown rock and scrub growth. They are obviously the tops of submerged peaks.

In passing the entrance to Thursday Island Harbor we noticed in at a small island covered with green palms and lawns. Atop it was a white one-story house surrounded by a garden. Leading to a boathouse in the waters edge was a white coral stairway walk. We also saw a wrecked sailing ship at one of the entrances.