BLACKWELL FAMILY KITIY BARRY SCOTT, JACK Scutt s/s Scottish Monarch Spezia North Italy 7th Jan 1922 Dear Miss Barry Blackwell I received your letter in Norfolk but only being there for about six hours to take coal I had not time to write in answer I found Portland like all other American cities very cheery, and pleanty plases of amusement which mean such a lot to us, who are always out to make up for bad time, so most part will be I do not know although I believe we are to be running between America and the Mediterranean and as we only go to Cardiff for Bunker coal I don't expect to see Kilmun this voyage but I have only one more year to serve now so that won't be long and when I do finish I will take a long holiday and again make up for lost time Last letter I had from James he said he was going up for his first exam about I can assure you the theatres and picture houses were well patronised by this ship. The Canal was as interesting as ever but for the heavy rain that falls there we would have had a pretty dry voyage however it cools things after a shower the steam could be seen rising off the decks and in two or three minutes after it was over the ship was quite dry again because of the awful heat We are now discharging in sunny Italy and go to Cardiff from here but what ourthe beginning of March, and then he comes home the following March so we will both be home together. I am afraid we will keep things cheery, and the hill that has had a rest for so long will be wakened up again the only thing we will miss is little "Jock" and you. You know "Jock" was such a good hunter and understood his duty when hunting with the gun so well, that anyone who missed anything that Jock put out of cover must be pretty slow. I have told Willie to get another dog and have him trained for our homecoming but I think Willie has to much to do already, however if he has not got one when I go home I think I will have to beg borrow or steal one, for, as long as I can remember we always kept a dog and if I went home and there was none I would think there was one of the Family short. This voyage I have had some of the old officers that were with me three years ago who for various reasons and at different times had to leave the ship year and I think it was spent in true Scotch fashion for some members of the crew were not able to work for three days after it. Well Miss Barry I think this is all the news at present so will close, hoping you are all well, and asking you to accept my kindest Regards for the [coming] New Year I am yours Sincerely Jack F. Scott and attend to business elsewhere, it makes a great difference to have them with us again for they are ones we know and their methods of working seem better than the new men that are in this service now On Christmas day we were 12 hours run from Gibraltar so you can guess it was spent very quietly on board and as I sat down to my Xmas dinner of salt pork I thought of you and all my friends spending a happy time and only wishing I had been with some of you to enjoy it. We were here for NewS/S Bellailsa New York 22/8/25 Dear Miss Barry Blackwell I received your letter & telegram today & must thank you very very much for your kind invitation to visit you, but as we are so busy loading a general cargo here for the west coast of South America, I really can't get leave. We started to load on Friday and we are working right through the weekend they don't seem to care whither it is Sunday or not round here, but you see we are to sail on the 29th and at the rate they are working now they won't manage it, so I expect we shall have them working all night next week as well as all day, the bulk of our cargo is heavy iron beams and mining machinery so you see the loading process must be carefull and slow. We are chartered by an American firm called Whitney so we will be coming back to American ports from the west coast & if the ship pleases this firm we may be out on this trade for some time. I hope one voyage is all we do for I have not been home for about a year now and I am longing to see dear old Kilmun again. We have been to Newcastle on Tyne, and Cardiff in that year but we were only three days in each port and so leave was impossible for me to have. We left Cardiff last March and went to Saigon French Indo China and then to Bankok where we loaded rice for Cuba we came to Cuba via Durban, South Africa, and then St. Thomas Island coaling at these ports we discharged our cargo at eight ports in Cuba last one was Havana and then we came up here for this charter so in the last 5 months we have sailed about 18,000 miles and been to 13 different ports so you can see we have not been idle. Well I think Father will have given you all the news from Kilmun and as it is so long since I was there any news I had would be old news to you. In the letter I had last week Father just said they were all very busy and there was nothing new, so trusting you all keep well I will close, give Jock a pat for me & wish him many happy returns of his birthday. With kindest Regards Yours affectionately Jack F. Scott Scott Jack s/s Scottish Monarch Naples 18th March 1923 Italy Dear Miss Barry Blackwell I intended writing you before this but the time has passed so quickly since we left England last November that I can hardly realise that it is the middle of March already. You see this being my last voyage as apprentice I have been using all my spare time to my studies with the result that I find my correspondence sadly neglected however better late than never The last time I wrote you we were bound for Germany, well we went through the wonderful Keil Canal to Stettin and there we discharged our cargo from the South Sea Islands We found things pretty cheap in Germany because of the rate of exchange it was ten thousand marks to the pound then but the Customs would not allow us to take anything out of the Country because it appears that the French on the Borders were buying German goods and then taking them toEngland, Italy, also to the south of France and then selling them at a very big profit, I wont trouble you about the German's in this letter for the Newspapers will give you all the news all I say is I found them very friendly but below the friendliness one could trace the hate they have for the British When we went into a shop to buy anything they put the price up two or three hundred percent and if we did not like to pay their price then they would not sell. From Stettin we went to the Bristol Channel and loaded Coal for Bombay we had a very good passage out through the Suez Canal and made Bombay on the 28th day out from Cardiff we were hardly anchored in the bay when we were besieged with Coolies selling silks tobacco boots Clothes and nearly everything one could mention but I think they found we were all old hands at making a bargin, for they did not come back to the ship very often Bombay is a very fine town at least the part that the white people live in there are some of the finest buildings I have ever seen in Bombay and the streets are so broad and 3 kept very clean but anything that is imported into India is very dear in fact I think of all the places I have visited yet the port of Bombay would be the worst one for anyone to live in according to the prices of clothing marked in shop windows and the style the whites have to keep up. We left Bombay the week before Christmas for Australia had a fine voyage down south and spent a quiet Christmas and new year at sea arriving off Rottnest Island we got orders to go into Fremantte and there we loaded a full cargo of wheat. I think I told you before all about Fremantte you remember I was there four years ago, the only difference now is it has grown a bit and is now a fine town shipping 3 million pounds sterling worth of frozen meat per month and 1 1/2 millions worth of grain and 1 million of flour so that is pretty good for Fremantte From there we came to Naples via Durban and St Vincent Cape de Verde and here we discharge but where we will go from here I don't know although I hope it will be home so that I can go home and sit my examination, however