Monday February 15th 1943

Well we left Beaumont at 7 a.m. today. Back down the river. A fine start too. We have a million pounds cash of oil on board. High octane 1 spark and Bobs your uncle. Coming down the river we nearly upset our tug and going round a bend the ship would not answer. Instead of going starboard she went to port and scraped the side of the river and the bottom. Yes we nearly got stuck there. We got to the coast, eventually, was ordered to drop anchor pending further orders which came just as the anchor was going down. Up it had to come, proceed to sea, we did. But here we are again hours later, in fact  7 p.m. stationary outside Galveston again waiting convoy. Goodness knows how long for. No one knows. We are just moving, a horrible motion with the flow of the sea. It makes one feel sick, hurry up convoy. We have also started well this way. As we left the river this morning a sub. was reported, which meant sub stations. But we have had no trouble so far. We are a perfect target now though. What would not a sub. Commander give for a stationary oil tanker with a million of octane in her. I hope we do not get bumped though or I shall lose all these things I have bought.

My mate has painted the floor of our cabin a lovely shade of green. Next he is going to do the walls white. It will look nice. Our news editor has started. He has put up "News begins tomorrow", so we are eager to know the worse.

Oh! we are moving. The engines are going anyway but I think it is only to keep us with the tide.