May 1, 1918 – Full diary entry:

“Stormy. More seasick. I feel good but wish I could feel dry land again.

I am worrying about Elinore. I fear I will never see you again. Food is still poor. But I eat.”

Tucked away in the back of this diary is a map on which Robert traced his unit’s route through France. He also kept this picture of Elinore. I like to think he took it out and looked at it while writing.

Chaplain Edwards has a nice passage about seasickness in From Doniphan to Verdun: The Official History of the 140th Infantry:

Seasickness makes for democracy. It draws no distinction between officers and men, and the man never asks the rank of the man standing beside him at the rail. Although it was not yet really rough, some of the men had unhappy moments. One man lay helpless in his hammock, his sweetheart’s picture in his hands; he was telling her how much he loved her, and that he was dying with her name upon his lips. One soldier, cheerful in adversity, said that he did not want to die because flowers for the funeral were so scarce. And a husky mule-skinner summed up the general feeling. A strong, fine man, he was able to eat only a little fruit during the whole trip.

“When I get back to Old Missouri,” he said, “When I get back to Old Missouri I am going to buy a team of good mules and a farm. I am never going to travel farther than the cross-roads store, and if there is a pond of water on that farm as big as this deck, I am going to drain the blanked pond!”

Where was Robert today? See the timeline.