— 6 — 
0* 
March -<3 - 
Up bright and early so as not to miss the zoo director 
when he came to call for us* Unloading began at 6*30, and 
continued noisily all morning* We stayed on the upper deck, 
leeward mostly to avoid the coal dust, and watched our neigh- 
bors In the harbor* A swift and sturdy looking banana boat, 
flying the French flag, was near us, and a freshly painted 
Portuguese freighter gradually lost its brightness as the coal 
settled over its. A small Polish freighter set us all to 
speculating; what would be the home port of this ship-without- 
a-country? Greek, Italian and Belgian steamers were either 
riding at anchor or tied up to wharves near us* But the theme 
of the harbor was war, not commerce, with British airplane 
carriers, warships, destroyers, auxiliary cruisers, and airplanes 
and amphibians around and above us* The Uhenfels, once a German 
merchant ship, was being coaled under the British flag; it had 
been captured somewhere between here and South America only a 
few months ago. Towards noon the airplane carrier, with its 
wide cleared decks and top-heavy tower moved out to sea, as did 
other British and French boats. 
We scratched our going-ashore clothes turn dark with soot; 
the Senegalese slung big boxes, marked "Glass: Handle With Care" 
into cargo nets and out of Humber 2 hatch; Bernice played Circus 
Echoes on her portable victrola; occasionally automobiles came 
speeding down the wharf toward us, but never one of them contained 
the promised zoo director, and at one o’clock we finished unloading 
and moved slowly away from the wharf without ever having put foot 
ashore* 
"Dakar? Oh yes; that's where we anchored in the coal yard. 
But Bill says it’s french and to hell with it. 
Hardly were we well out to sea v/hen the rumble of heavy 
guns began to shake the air. We all went up on the upper deck 
again, and by the aid of glasses could watch what looked at first 
like a naval battle in progress. We could see the flash of the 
gunfire, and then when the shell hit the water a great red flare 
went up, like a column of smoke and spray* Eventually we could 
make out the target, a large flat square, as well as the French 
war ship which we had seen that morning. It was only practice, but 
as far as we could see no direct hits were scored. 
