Dear Dad,                                                                (May/June 1944?)

As I write we have been at sea four days.  The weather has been beautiful but much of the time I am below, unable to enjoy it.  I was not badly seasick but felt distresses and thought of you and your trip to (unclear) when you were so terribly ill.  Today the sea is as smooth as the Hudson River and I can really enjoy it.  The colors of the water and sky, ever changing, are a delight.  Sometimes I lean over the rail watching the swirls and eddies as the water slips by.  I have spent sometime sketching.  In fact I am now preparing the first page, all pictures, for the “Seafoam” our ship newspaper.  The paper comes out daily.  I am preparing this page tor the Sunday special edition.

Sleeping conditions on a troopship are not exactly like the Ritz.  Hq Battery is quartered in a section on “A” deck towards the stern.  Bunks are in tiers of three and close together.  Duffle and personal belongings are strung on the ends of bunks and from overhead.  It is much pleasanter to stay on deck when possible.  (name unclear), Gordon (Ganong) and I are near each other.  We have played cards on several occasions.

I had a letter from Rena (sister) just before I left in which she mentioned that Aunt Harriett’s book (Harriet R Foote, author  of Mrs. Foote’s Rose Book, among others) is about ready for publishing.  I am anxious to see it.

With lots of love to you all – Carl ***

***  These letters came to me in a packet from my Great Great Aunt Harriett’s estate.  She kept all the V-mails my father sent her plus those addressed to his father % The Rose Garden.  My grandfather R.C. Risley spent time with Harriett in Marblehead after being widowed in 1944.