May 18 Thursday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sam’s notebook:

May 18. Smoothe seas, bright weather after all the rain & thunder & lightning. / The food is abundant but not inviting, not satisfying. If this ship pays anything at all for its potatoes, oranges, grapes, apples, & pears, it gets cheated. Positively they are not worth picking up in the gutter. The bananas were good — they gave out yesterday. / The broiled chicken is tender & good; the rest of the table is German — which tells the whole story [NB 33 TS 12].