The Barefoot Nymph and the Mother Hubbard Jacket ( ) (194

entry, the catch Scarlet Queen Philip Connie master position 120 degrees 29 minutes east 14 degrees north wind light sky overcast remarks departed part of Manila 9 a.m. after canceling shore leave for crew reason for unscheduled departure the barefoot nymph in the mother Hubbard jacket four days out of Swatau China that we raised the island of Luzon on the east and horizon and

stood in toward Manila. I swung the Scarlet Queen a little north of her course and we passed close under the rocks of Parekador. Every eye on our decks was turned toward the squat fortification for a minute. By this time they were covered with jungle growth again and were loudly silent in the manner of monuments that hold the stories of men who made the monuments.

Beyond the island we could see the steaming mass of the tan, and we swung back into Manila Bay. Manila should have been a friendly relaxing port for all of us. It meant a break in our voyage under Chaudh of the Kangen Sun.

To my crewmen, it meant the longest shore leave they'd had since we left San Francisco, and girls who knew what that meant to American semen. To my chief mate, Gallagher, it was like a home state picnic.

The harbor was jammed with freighters and tankers from the state. That meant that the Belanga Street bars were jammed with their crews. And that meant that Gallagher was jammed in with them, running into old friends and making new ones.

Manila should have been a holiday. And it was for three days and two nights. At ten o'clock the third night I was in the cabot alone, coming through the latest hydrographic bullet knife and able to find in town, when I heard somebody running down the dock toward the queen.