14 July 1945

In this letter, Jim is attempting to catch him a shark. His shipmates do catch a tiger shark, but the 'old man' (which I'm assuming is the captain) shot it with a machine gun before it was out of the water. Per Jim, this took all the fun out of fishing because he wanted it to fight on it's way out. Jim said if he caught one - he'd take the teeth and make a bracelet or necklace. I guess there's not much to do on the ships in the middle of the ocean besides work, tan and fishing for sharks. 

Post marked | 2 Aug 1945 by the Navy

Serial No. 7

14 July, 1945

At sea.

Dearest...

Six days at sea now and baby, it's lonesome, but still, it's pretty. I have never seen such nice days. The sea is so blue and the skies are cloudless. Tonight there was the prettiest sunset you have ever seen. A cool breeze has been blowing all day and tonight it is cool to really sleep good. If there wasn't the fact that I had to work each day, this would be a trip worth a lot of dough. It would cost you plenty in peacetime to go on a trip like this. I have been shark-fishing all day but even with a half-pound of sirloin steak dangling on the end of a hook, I couldn't get a bit. One fellow hooked a ten-footer though. Tiger shark - man-eater. He came around the ship about dark and nosed through the garbage thrown overboard, wouldn't touch any of it, them saw the meat on the hook and grabbed on. Didn't get much of a fight out of him because the 'old man' came back with a machine gun and shot him while still in the water. I would have been mad had they shot my shark, for the whole fun in fishing is having them fight and this one came in like a hunk of dead weight. No fun. They cut out his jaws to get the teeth, cut off his tail (why, I don't know), and threw the body back overboard. Wish they'd saved it until tomorrow and I could have used it for bait. I still think I'll hook one sooner or later. The ship we passed mail to said that they caught about 15 sharks while out here. They made shark steaks out of theirs and ate them. I'll stick to beef steaks. If I get a shark, I want his teeth to make a bracelet or necklace out of them.

I'm getting a nice tan from my fishing jaunts and wont be long before I'll really have a nice smooth job all around. Right now it's mostly on my front, back, and arms, with the sides and undersides of my arms white as a lily. Guess tomorrow I'll lay on my side and try to get even. There's nothing much else to write about. I'll just stop this now and go to bed, adding another note tomorrow or the next day, and mail the whole batch as soon as I get a chance. Hope you are fine and haven't run off with the ice-man while I'm away. Love.