A wartime letter home, written in cursive on lined paper and folded for mailing. Dated December 27, the author describes life aboard a ship at sea during World War II — delays reaching port, heavy winds, the loss of life rafts, a frightening list of the vessel, a discovered leak, and the ship drifting off course — interwoven with small, human details of daily shipboard routine. Letters such as this offer an intimate, firsthand window into the anxieties and small comforts of military life far from home. Project: 218342