September 18 - 
All has gone well for days, except for losing the larger of 
the Koraodo dragons. The se? has been smooth and blue, and the air 
perfect. Working around the animals has been fun, just enough to 
keep us busy, and the gibbons have been holding up pretty well - 
not s loss since the little bl?ck boy. 
Today, however, the werther changed, and the ship was rolling 
considerably at lunch time. As the afternoon wore on, the storm 
increased with farming suddenness. Bill wouldn't let me go below 
to feed the gibbons at three o'clock, as the decks were awash, and 
the footing very treacherous, due to the decks having been painted 
with oil yesterday, ?nd being slippery even when they ™ere not 
wet and rolling. In spite of being lashed together, many of the 
bird cages started to slide, and had all to be re-arranged" and 
made doubly secure. Gaddi, of course, was sea-sick, which threw 
extra work on everybody. 
All afternoon there was the sound of crashing and banging, 
as kitchen crockery, glasses and bottles, chatts and tables over- 
turned and rolled about. Waves were breaking over the boat-deck 
by dinner time, and plenty of seas were coming regularly aboard. 
We had racks on the table for the first time on all the seas we have 
sailed since leaving home. 
After dinner we sat, uncomfortably, in the little day-room, 
the settee there being built in, and about as secure a thing to hang 
on to as there is on board. I had just said, about eight-thirty, 
?, I think I'll have one drink and go to bed, T? when I heard the tele- 
graph from the bridge to the engine room, and the Captin dashed through 
our room, on his way to the bridge, putting on his coat ?s he went. 
Then of course we had to wait up until he came back, to get his 
report on wha t had happened. Secretly we hoped that the Endeavor 
had been sighted, for how we would love to have the opportunity of 
rescuing the famous yacht. However, when the Captain came back, 
he said that the engine was racing, due t the propeller being out 
of water, and we had slackened speed. That seemed to be all right, 
and we went out on deck for a while, to watch the moon sail crazily 
back and forth behind the big blue and white funnel, and to see the 
huge seas, their foaming crests made luminous by moonlight, come 
racing up to us. As we stood there, men were busily running about 
on the wet decks, all of them in oilskins, and with high rubber 
boots. The Captain said, f, They are all going pft; I'll just take 
a look and see what is wrong. ff This time he came back to report that 
the wind had taken away most of the tarpaulin over the giraffe cages, 
and that in spite of the way in which these big crates (eleven feet 
high) had been lashed, they had slipped four inches. ?T I f ve given 
orders to tighten them up, ?? he said. |f Now I must go on the bridge. v 
He went up the ladder two steps at a time* ?nd we heard the telegraph 
to the engine room ring again - this time it was ?? Dead slow ?? . That 
means about two knots an hour, and at this speed the Captain turned the 
ship about, so that we had the sea dead ahead instead of on our beam, 
and we hove to for three and a half hours, while our live cargo 
was all made safe, and lashed and braced with ropes and lumber. It 
was amazing how easily the ship rode, once the engines slowed down 
and we headed south instead of northwest. 
