EXCERPTS FROM THE DAILY LEVEL # 7

Monday, September 7, 1998

5'5" above SEA LEVEL

Thomas Phillipi

MOTHER RACHEL I

Sea Level, N.C., July 27, 1998

....during the war, Rachel was about twenty-three, twenty-four years old... he came aboard the ship as steward....no one called him Mother Rachel in them days... everyone knew he was gay, he made no bones about it, but it did not bother anyone in the crew... you know: 'you had a good time tonight Rachel, when you went ashore?'... 'oh, I met the nicest Navy boy'.... but anyway, Rachel was a good steward, so he was accepted, there's a lot of gays going to sea ....I don't know when he got that name, that was about twenty, thirty years later, I guess....so he was steward on the ship and we had a purser that was supposed to be a pharmacist mate, and so, one morning, I'm coming up from breakfast and here comes the steward with a hot water bottle and I say, 'steward, what are you doing with a hot water bottle, that's the purser's job'...he says 'that's the trouble, our little purser is sick' he says 'and I'm looking after him'....he says ' I feel just like Florence Nightingale' ...and I say 'carry on, Flossy!'....

(Harrison Maycroft)