Wednesday 20th January 1943

Well, up this morning , Brrrr it was so cold. We were up before the ship sailed and everything, all Frost and sea water , was freezing up. We had to go down 50 feet into the engine room for every bucket of water. And so it has been all day. I am fed up with it but we have left N. Y. and are now well on our way. Aircraft is accompanying us . We are going all out for the Skipper is taking a chance going on his own like this. We have seen a few other ships. As we go south it will get noticeably warmer and when we hit the Stream it will be quite nice. That will be in a couple of days time.

It has just struck me , I have seen no peculiar fish or any of the funny osities of the sea this trip. We heard today that the last ship in our convoy was fired on twice by a sub, but missed each time, in that bit of bother a few days back.

The Bosun of one ship, in the harbour, fell overboard. They got him out at once but he was stiff, he died at once through the cold.  I can believe it. We had to get more stores on in that terrific cold . It is a wonder any of us survived on the deck. It was very treacherous and damned hard work too.