The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment left the United States on 20 October 1942 on the old Dutch Motor, the Poelau Laut, which had just been converted from a cargo ship to a troop transport. 

              The ship was built in 1929 in Amsterdam, Netherlands and had served, in the interim, to handle cargo between Europe and the Dutch East Indies.  For the time she was built her speed of 15 knots must have been very satisfactory for that trade.  The ship had five cargo holds and gear for handling miscellaneous cargo utilizing a lot of longshoremen.

  The Poelau Laut had been designed to handle about thirty passengers on its voyages to the Dutch East Indies.  The passengers, who must have lived a unhurried  life of leisure, occupying small but comfortable staterooms.  They had a spacious lounge where they could read, smoke and play cards.  The dining room, as well, was spacious for the number of people on the passenger list.

  When the United States entered World War II the country had only a few ships designed to haul troops.  Those, which existed, were far from adequate to move the huge numbers of troops having to be moved to the far reaches of the world.  Consequently ships like the Poelau Laut were taken over by the United States and converted into vessels capable of moving large numbers of troops.

  In the case of Poelau Laut all five cargo holds were fitted with a tiers of canvas bunks, piled one on top of the other.  Frequently, where there was (almost) adequate room, six tiers of these bunks would be installed.  The top man had a long climb and woe to the man who would fall out of his bunk--it was a long way to the deck.  The bunks were so close together it took a cooperative effort of the whole stack of men for any one man to turn over.  This was a bit difficult to coordinate in the middle of the night.  Every Enlisted man was assigned to one of these dismal abodes.

  Part of the deck in one hold was converted into mess facilities for the troops.  Since, in theory, the men had no heavy work to perform they would not get hungry and need to have three meals a day, the whole shipload of men were fed only twice a day.  With the ship almost at capacity and only two mess lines to handle the feeding of the troops, the men spent many hours in line waiting for their food.

  The officers had things a bit more luxurious.  The dining room which had served the 30 passengers was used to feed the, roughly, two hundred officers of all ranks.  Individual tables, seating four, had been replaced by two long tables serving about 20 officers at a time.  A wait was required for these tables but nothing to approach the Enlisted "chow line".

  Beginning with the Lieutenant Colonels, of which there were a handful, and reaching down into the high seniority Captains some officers were given state rooms.  Where there had been two civilian passengers now there were six officers.  This left   the low ranking Captains and the First and Second Lieutenants.  There were, probably, about 150 of these.  Four plywood boxes were built, two on each side of the ship, to house these Officers.  About 40 Officers were crammed into each of these "cabins".  The bunks here were stacked three high, in most places, which, while not well-appointed, can be endured.  Each of these "cabins" had a head, wash stands and showers served with fresh salt water.  Once in a very long time the showers were supplied with fresh water from the ships evaporators.  The evaporators were barely adequate for the needs of the ship machinery, so fresh water showers were a rarity.