Motorship Gripsholm - October 21, 1945

Another in the series of letters written on board the Gripsholm, which sailed on October 16, 1945 from New York, and didn't arrive in Port Said until November 6th.  


Dear girls,
Constantly you have been in my thoughts, as we came on board, and have journeyed.  Walking around on the steamer, looking at the sea sometimes, in the dining room, in dozens of ways, I'm reminded of you. The ocean has been very calm and the ship is nicely ventilated so we have both been good sailors so far.

It is so different traveling with so many people.  There are 850 passengers. There people everywhere.  Miss Kosher [1], the AIM girl going to Kenya has been having children's services every day. Sometimes there are as many as 50 children in the service. Each day we have prayer meetings at 10am. It has been a lovely time of fellowship. There are over 100 missionaries on board. As we get to know them it has been interesting to  learn of their work.  Some of the passengers are foreigners. Lots of Italians and Greeks, also some Jews and Egyptians. They are truly a strange lot.

It has been nice to get acquainted with our own AIM group.  Mr. and Mrs. Felton and their two little girls Charlotte and Linda are going to Tanganyika. We don't see so much of them because they eat in the first sitting.  All the rest of us eat in the second sitting. Since we don't have children it is swell, for our breakfast is not until 9:15 so you see we are being very lazy. Actually the days have seemed endlessly long. The motion of the ship has taken away our desire to study and it's hard to read without getting a headache. I think it is a little better now so maybe we'll get our sea legs and be able to get some things accomplished. The voyage stretches endlessly ahead.  They tell us it will take 22 days from NY to Alexandria.  We stop in Naples and in Greece but I'm not sure just when as yet.  It would be a nice change if we could go ashore and see these places.

We are dreading arriving in Egypt as it has not been possible to make arrangements ahead. we'd like so much to find steamer connections for the folks going to East Africa. There are a large number of missionaries wanting to go that way. Then too we'll probably have an awful crowd trying to get accommodations to go up the Nile like we want to journey. Wish you girls were with us, then we'd be more interested in seeing sights in Egypt.  But we'll try to take an extra look at interesting things for you and at least tell you about it.

For several days we have been seeing lots of seaweed which tells us we're travelling in the Gulf Stream. Yesterday we passed a ship but no sharks or fish and the waves have been so "muke muke" you'd be disappointed. Even the sunsets have been minus due to clouds although it has been nice and sunny each day.

Much love,
Mother

FOOTNOTES

1.    E. Geneva Kosher.