[Rambler241]

BTW, we had the unexpected delight of dumplings in the beef stew last night. Unfortunately they were green, and tasted what might be described as "funny". When pressed (which means two stokers sat on him until they got an answer), Otto revealed the source of the green blobs. He'd pared off the mouldy outsides of our remaining loaves, looking for any white bits lurking within. There were none, so he lighted on the brilliant wheeze of using the green parings to make the dumplings. The only reason he's still cook is that no one else wants to spend all their time (except for fag breaks on the casing) in a tiny, foetid, hot galley with only steaming pans and dirty plates for company. However, to give him his due, after 5 days in heavy seas south of Iceland, the crew would moan about the food if it was expertly prepared by a Michelin chef.

The watch crew had their eye on a circling albatross, and one even requested permission to take a pistol up top, in case it got close enough. I pointed out that a plucked albatross is a lot smaller than one might think, and as I'm much better read than they are (the crew, not the seabirds), there are ominous precedents for shooting an albatross.