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January 25th, 1942

Shoved off from Brisbane. Glad to get going. We hear there’s quite a flock of U.S. soldiers here. Must have been the ones that were to help us.

Around 9 or 10 o’clock, lot’s of excitement. Heard a man yell “Man overboard!” A Filipino on deck sleeping on the cot next to Lt. Donegan jumped over the side – he had part of his arm gone. Looked as though he meant to go, because he went right down without a word. It was dark, and although they threw life preservers at him, before the ship could stop or turn around, we must have been miles from him.

They spent two hours searching, but the ship had no search light, so it was useless. Sort of depressed the gang, but it couldn’t be helped. My leg is sure sore.