to turn on the light and it is very difficult to lower the boom in a 
rough sea and therefore a couple of these nights the captain has told 
me that they could not turn on the light for this reason. 
11 February 1963 
This day has been the calmest we have yet spent at sea. The 
numbers of Albatrosses have increased considerably over the numbers 
of the previous days counts, it is impossible to make an accurate 
count of the number now following the ship but it is certainly well 
over 100. The number of Laysan Albatross we notice around the ship 
is also Increased. It seems probable that they too also follow the 
ship but they remain for the most part at a much greater distance 
from the ship than do the Black-foot, perhaps^a mile or two most of 
the time. Our visible range from the flying bridge is about 6 miles 
I do not know how much of this range we can accurately identify the 
birds in with the binoculars. The ship's radar broke down this morning 
and the navigator missed Laysan island as we should have landed there 
about 0900. We steamedwwe&t until about noon before it was decided 
that the ship had definitely missed the island and we turned about, 
sighting Laysan about lk 00 hours. Two boat loads of personnel and 
some equipment went ashore at the west boat landing about 1500. There 
is presently a party of two Army and two Air Force personnel on Laysan 
working on improving navigation aids among the Leewards. All of their 
operations ore from an LST which is equipped with a helicopter deck 
so that all of their travel from ship to island and vice-versa is by 
helicopter. They have been on Laysan since the middle of January and 
have a camp of four tent 3.3 a kerosene refrigerator and stove and a 
generator for electricity. In addition to ample supplies of fresh food 
26 
