Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-10-12


Nassau. Saturday passed with land
in sight most of the day. At night
1 saw an incident which but indi.
Gates our point of desperation in
search of food. A K man Of New
York sat upon the side of the cooks
dining room door, and when he
thought he wasnot looking, reached
in stealthily, grabbed plate that
had some gravy left from meal,
and drank it from the dish: Men
offered any price for food, or even a
scrap of bread from the kitchen to
satisfy their awful craving for the
food which was denied them. The
officers had no trouble in that way.
1 had telt "bum" all day and
could eat nothing. The coffee was
rotten" and I took just a sip in
the morning with two bites of hard
tack, for breakfast; a sardine tor
dinner, which Bill Larned gave me
and had nothing for supper, hop
ing to work pull I had arranged
in the kitchen; but the fool cook
went back on me. l had spoken
to Bob Wrenn, Bill Larned, Teddy,
Holt and Hill, so we were all dis
appointed. Holt, Bob and. went
in search of anything we could get
from the kitchen, and Teddy went
with Doc. I never so craved even
a crust of bread. The steward had
ordered no one to sell anything, so
the cooks did it on the sly only,
and charged enormously and made
tremendous money. They soon
became terribly independent and
domineering. We waited from
seven until nearly ten down in a
dark old alley, driven about by the
guard and cooks like cattle. Holt
thought be had a pull on some food,
but it, too, failed. Finally Tedd
and Doc bought loaf of fresh
bread for quarter. They called
me and I did not do a thing" to
that bread. I never had bread taste
so good. We saved some for the
others, so did not get halt enough.
We used all means of persuasion,
and had plot to break into the
cooks mess, but could not accom-
plish it. Bob Wrenn, unbeknown
to us, had succeeded in buying
from one of the crew, his supper OF
dry bread, bacon and a little bolog-
ma. We were leaving and had the
most detected spirits, when, sud
denly, Bob produced this plate of
stuff. almost fell on his neck.
This certainly braced me up, for I
felt much better the next day. X x
ANSWERING THE BANCROFT.
Today Sunday 19th) we were or
dered by the Flagship to drop back
and accompany the City of Wash
ington, the transport that was near
the Maine wnen she was blown up.
The City of Washington is towing
an ammunition supply schooner, so
goes more slowly than the rest. We
made large circle and rounded
up alongside. While doing so, the
Bancroft fired a shot signal for us
to stop, and Immediately ran along
side, and inquired why we had
dropped back. There was some
difficulty in understanding at the
distance, as we had no megaphone
aboard. The commander of the
Bancroft, after getting the desired
information, and calling down our
captain for not reporting change of
orders, asked what troops were
aboard, and upon reply from the
captain that they were the Rough
Riders with Roosevelt and Wood,
there went up great shout from
the marines aboard the Bancroft,
answered by cheer for the Navy
from our boat. 1t was tremendous
ly inspiring. Later the Bancroft
steamed alongside, and asked how
Coils. Wood and Roosevelt were,
and our men replied, almost in one
voice, He's all right"
Twas posted down in the hold,
and went on at seven. During my
second guard, Lieut.. Goodrich
came down and we had little talk.
This post I had was to guard dyna-
mite, and I had to keep very strict
watch about lights, etc. We had
service in the morning, and 1 sang
in the choir next to Col. Roosevelt.
Very good sermon on Respect
We had a very good Chaplain.
Wednesday, ~. This morning
reveille sounded at halt past three,
and we packed everything ready
tor landing. About seven O'Clock
came the bombardment of the shore