Dart writes that if anyone should ask him why he’s not out on liberty, he’d have no good answer for them. He feels like he’s getting a really good head cold. He’s so lonely for Dot that all he wants is to be alone, and when he’s alone, he misses her even more.

It was such a beautiful, spring-like day that the Navy yard looked especially bright and cheerful. That being the case, he’s inspired to write to her about what he sees from the decks of the John R Craig. For several pages, he writes one of those delightful descriptive essays, incorporating sights, sounds and smells. Below, I’ve copied a few of the more colorful passages.

“A Navy yard is a colorful place on a day like this. Even the drab gray of the warships seems a bit brighter and friendlier today because of the sun. …On both sides of the long piers are ships. Smoke, steam and noise are as much a part of the picture as the ships themselves. …Across the dock are two ships like ours; one painted very light gray, almost white, with her hull a bluish color; the other, like ours, a chalky slate color, like a blackboard that’s been used once, then carefully erased.”

“From the masts of ships fly the colorful arrays of signal flags. Their messages, though, have no meaning, for all the flags fly in a fluttering hodgepodge of brilliance as the air coaxes the moisture from them. At the stern of each ship…flies the flag of the nation, as if proud of each and every ship from which it waves.”

“The great green cranes stalk around on their lofty towers, like like a flock of caricatured mechanized storks. Time was when they assisted at the birth of ships. Now, they are helping those ships to die comfortably. As the cranes move amid the din of clanging bells, a gang of white-helmeted black men walk ahead of them, signalling to the operator high above so that he may know just where and how to handle the next load of material.”

“The docks swarm with activity. The gay colors of the hard helmets worn by the workers tell what those workers do. The reddish-brown ones burn steel with hot torches. The green ones work with sheet metal. If there’s a black stripe fore and aft across the top of the hat, the man underneath it is a leading man, a sub-foreman. So every trade is represented by a distinctly colored helmet, and all add color to the already-bright day.”

He writes at length about the color-coded pipes that crisscross the yard. Black ones carry fuel oil, orange is for saltwater. The red-and-white pipes supply the ships with fresh water for drinking, cooking and washing. Blue ones signify high-pressure steam and green ones carry high-pressure air.

The ships themselves add to the palette.  The gray ones run the gamut of nearly-white to almost black. There’s a wide array of blue hues, as well.

In addition to the large white numbers worn by every ship, some of the vessels also sport cartoon drawings of a mascot or the ships campaign ribbons painted gaily on the smoke stacks. Many also boast a kind of colorful score card showing the flags of enemy nations accompanied by hash marks for all the ships or planes of that nation that were destroyed by that ship.

It’s hard to envision that not too long ago, the decks of these ships were awash in seawater and blood. They look so calm now, the sir of peace making the huge guns look almost ornamental.

He writes about the bright red color of the traditional primer used to prevent rust on the steel ships. Now there is a new rust-preventing  paint in town, called chromate. “It’s a true yellow. Yellow enough to make the yellowest canary green with envy.”

“I betchya’ didn’t think there could be so much color in a Navy yard, did ya’? I got dreamy today and thought there might be a story in it. After I’d figured the story out, and the noise had quieted, and the colorfully-hatted workmen had left, the flags were all hauled down at once just as the sun slopped behind the horizon. The beautiful sunset put all my efforts to shame. It was so peaceful and beautiful that it accentuated my loneliness for you.”

He’s mighty glad she didn’t get caught writing that letter in biology class. I’d hate to have been in the room to hear either you or the good professor read those first two paragraphs for the edification of the whole class!”

He tells her that the three months or so until the pain of their long distance separation can be eased will be the longest three months of his life. He’s so eager to hear her reply to his letter about marrying sooner. When he does, he can write to her parents for their input.

“I want so desperately to marry you and enjoy ‘growing up’ with you, that my old caution has been shaken. Call it progress, restlessness, the urge to mate, or whatever you will, it all boils down to love, a deep, tender, passionate, companionable love that few people ever really know.”

Amen.

#     #     #

Dot just read Dart’s hefty letter – the one in which he ponders the possibilities of a 1947 wedding. She sits down to write him the response he so eagerly awaits. She’d like to send his letter to her parents so that they’ll have all of Dart’s well-crafted thoughts. She trusts them to keep it to themselves until she and Dart decide what they plan to do.

As for college, Dot admits she is lukewarm to the whole idea. Getting a good education doesn’t seem as important to her as it did when she started, so she  thinks she’d be satisfied with two years. If she took the right classes and did well in them, she should be able to get a job doing some sort of recreational work, which she would not only enjoy doing, but would also make decent money.

“Whether I’ve hinted at it or not, it has always been my intent to work the first couple of years after we’re married – regardless of whether you go to college after we’re married or have already graduated. To quote your own words, ‘We must give and take each in equal amounts,’ and that certainly doesn’t mean I should sit home all day straightening up what few rooms we’ll have before that dream house becomes a reality. There is only one reason, I feel, for a wife to stay home all day and that is to do justice to raising a family, which, by the way is something we must not overlook. I’m afraid I don’t know much about preventatives for raising a family right away, but I know there are some.”

She suggests that she could go to school over the summer, thereby graduating in March of 1947. That would allow her to work a few months to save for their future before the wedding. On the other hand, it would be more fair to her parents if she would forego summer classes so she could work and help her parents pay tuition for her second year at Kent.

She wishes she felt easier about discussing this with his parents. All along, they’ve been under the impression that Dart would finish school first, and now the plans may be changing. She’s glad Dart broke the ice with them via letter. Now, maybe they will broach the subject with Dot next weekend, rather than her having to bring it up.

No matter the difficulties, she is of the firm belief that they should not wait until Dart is out of school before they marry. The separations are becoming unbearable. Waiting an extra year would add too much strain and unhappiness for them both.

She’s so grateful he wrote such a thoughtful letter. Even though a potential wedding is still 17 months away, it gives her something to pin her hopes on. She won’t even try to write any news, because this letter was big enough to fill a letter all by itself. Oh, how she loves him!