[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]Bibby Line
Estd. 1821S. S. Lancashire
Tuesday, Oct 22, 1929
Dearest Honey:-
This is so much more interesting than a trip across the Atlantic, because things happen. We see land, this morning it was Cape St. Vincent, tonight it will be Gibralter. And we pass ships, a lot of them today. We have been thru some rather rough seas but I have not yet been actively sick. I have missed two meals in the dining room but I think I might have gone down. There is a big covered space in the front of the upper deck for chairs and I have been sitting here most o fthe afternoon listening to the tales of my fascinating roommate, Louise Clark, who is going to Jaffra as a trained nurse. She is aunt to Lucy Street, and knows a lot of people whom I know. Her sister is a teacher in the Uduvil school and brought Grace Paul to the States. She was over in southern Turkey during some of the fighting and her tales of relief work are thrilling. I ought to know Dr. Sheppard of whom she talks, but I can't recall that I do.
Well, I am very fortunate. I can't say much for the stateroom, for it is very small and dark, being under the roof of the deck above, but we can have our window open all the time. The English people whom I have met are very nice. A Mr. & Mrs. Shaw, the former, superintendent of the port in Colombo, sit across from me at table. Mrs. Shaw has told me a lot of the way she lives in C-. Another sweet Eng. woman whose chair is near to mine on the deck, has interested me very much in her two lovely children, one three and a half, the other eight, whom she is leaving in England for a term of four years. She can't speak of them without her eyes filling. I have not yet learned what the husband's post is. The table in this boat is quite as good as on the Laconia, I think. Of course I miss here, as on the Cunard line, the vegetables. The ever lasting cabbage is not to my taste. We have a very nice stewardess and the lounge steward is pleasant. The crew are all Hindus, dejected, woe-begone looking things, who will perhaps become more picturesque as we proceed.
Thursday morning - we passed Gibralter last night and saw it only dimly - we are now passing the Spanish coast, bare cliffs, full of color, falling steeply to the sea, with only an occasional sign of life upon them. There are patches of snow here and there and in the background some snow covered peaks. It grows warmer. Many people go about without cots. I still cling to mine, for I have a head cold that amounts to little, but gave me the excuse to take aspirin, from Mrs. Dewey's medicine case, for the first time in my life. We reach Marseilles Friday morning and have twenty four hours there. Letters posted there are sent across France to London and then remailed. I hope this reaches you promptly.
Miss Clark who is decidedly a favorite with men, hopes to meet some French officers whom she got to know during her relief work. A raft of people get on the boat at M- so that we shall be very crowded until Port Sudan when a great many leave. I think the man who sits by me at table is at Khartoum. He has a very jaded looking wife and two fine little boys. She confided this morning that she is very fond of Americans because she has met a lot of them in Italy where she has lived a good deal.
It is a sparkling day, with a smooth sea, the Med. is not as blue as I hope to see it, but does very well. If I had planned things for myself I should not have dared to be so kind to myself as I have found the trip so far. I find it very hard to write you impersonal letters. I must reform. Don't pass this about too freely.
Much love to you and to the dear friends
S. E. S.