Dart begins this letter while on watch. A rain storm has driven him inside the station, rather than lying on top of it, basking in the sun.

This has hardly felt like a holiday. It seems strange to have no fireworks or parades. The guys are hoping they can talk somebody into firing off a few rounds from one of the anit-aircraft guns. “That in itself would create quite a noise, but the ‘fireworks’ would come from another source.” (The brass, perhaps?)

He begins a dissertation on the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. He begins by telling Dot that he sees another ship that’s traveling with them far off on the horizon, 13 miles away. On the other side of his ship, there’s another one, roughly the same distance from him. That means that between the two vessels on either side of the Haggard, there is about 25 miles of open sea – or approximately the distance that Dart drove from Cleveland to Andrews School for a date with Dot. Theses three ships can cruise at top speed, that far apart for days and days and days, and none of them will see the tiniest speck of land. Nothing but sea, ships and sky.

It took a much faster ship 21 days at top speed to deliver Dart from California to the place where he first boarded the Haggard. Not once in that time was land visible anywhere on the horizon.

Last night, he took his dress jumper and two suits of his whites to the ship’s tailor. Prior to sailing, his uniforms all looked like he could smuggle potatoes in them, but now there’s barely room for just him! He had his jumpers pared down in the “midships” section to fit him closer, but the trousers didn’t need any work at all, so we know where al his newly acquired weight has ended up.

All of this is in preparation for an upcoming Captain’s Inspection of Personnel. He doesn’t object too strongly about these infrequent inspections. Generally, the crew wears dungarees all day, every day, so the inspections are a nice way to break up the routine. If they happen too often though, Dart would be right there cussin’ with everyone else, and even begin to mean it.

The bull session near him is getting too rowdy for him to continue writing, but he deems the letter too long anyway, and signs off.

No letters on July 5, but Dot returns on the 6th.