The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-17

Special Correspondence of the Standard,
On Board the Troop Ship Pennsyl-
Vania, Latitude "a, Longitude 1872, July
26.-Within "a hours the 1900 weary men
aboard the Pennsylvania expect TO sight
land to the Southwest. BY that time
Honolulu should be less than so miles
distant. 1t has been a tedious voyage
thus far from la Francisco, and 1000
threats will shout a lusty welcome to
land again.
Down in four or five dingy rooms on
the rear of the main deck are IA very
sick men, who left Montana the 25th
of last May wearing the uniform of
United States soldiers. They are under
the care of Regimental Surgeon Adams
and his two assistants, Drs. Drumming
and Southmayd. Three of the men
have measles, two have the mumps.
one. a young Anaconda boy named
Hercules Charette. is raving in the de-
lirfum of typhoid fever, and the Others
are suffering from sea sickness or pros
tration.
There is one young man from Cali
1ornia, a native son of the Golden West
named William Fales, who is proba hlv
gasping away his last few hours of
life. He is very i'll with eumon
and his physicians dc not think he can
live until the boat reaches land. There
is but one small consolation for the poor
boy-the Hawaiian islands are now so
near that he will not be buried at sea.
For three days he has prayed to live
long enough to enable his compa MONS
TO bury him without casting his enact
ated body into the blue waters of the
Pacific to become food for the monsters
that inhabit these Southern seas. Death
is sad under any circumstances but IL
is terribly mournful at sea.
Now that we are nearing port, where
many changes in the condition of the
men aboard the Pennsylvania are TO
be made, a brief recital of some of the
circumstances attending the trip out
here may be interesting. When Colonel
kessler. commanding the 1st Montana. !
received orders at San Francisco to
take his regiment aboard the steamer
pennsylvania inc proceed to the Phil
ippine islands to reinforce Dewey at
Manila. the boys from Montana, who
had spent several weary weeks of wait
ing in the sand al Camp Merritt. set |
up a shout for Joy. They were glad to
get away; to-day most of them would
give all they are worth to get back in
camp on Geary street. /
The Pennsylvania is an iron boat
about rs years old, having been built
In 1873 for the mercantile service be-
tween Philadelphia and Antwerp. She |
is less than 800 feet long and very mar
row.. Early last spring she left New
YORK for San Francisco to engage in
the trade. The day she arriv-
ed In san Francisco she was engaged by
the government as a transport to carry
troops to Manila. Ten days later she
left port for the South Sea islands. car
rying 1,4o0 troops, consisting of the
LIST Montana infantry n 300 recruits
for the LIST California infantry, which
regiment left on the first expedition.
during the last days in May.
The Pennsylvania is admitted TO be
4 very staunch boat. She is ron framed
throughout and is very strong. While
on her trip around Cape Horn she en-
a storm off the coast of South
America that was said to be one of the
most severe ever experienced in that
part OF the world. She lost one of her
lie boats and part of her bridge was
away. but she lived through IL
III n Is now regarded as a very sea-
worthy craft.
IicA nc" nave every commence In
but admit that she is a terrible
I'D tub to roll. In the language of one
" the men who has seen several years .
Il service on the Pennsylvania, "She is 7,
strong, safe boat, but the worst thing :
float to roll. She would roll If she was .
N the dry dock"
There are reasonably comfortable a.,
I~uarters on the Pennsylvania for 700 +,
nen. Even that number would crowd ;
he steerage quarters into an unhealthy 3
The facilities for ventilating ,
be hold are abominably poor. The .
rocks and rolls so awfuIly that it
) impossible to keep the port holes OF q
he lower deck e and ever since z
re left San Francisco hundreds of poor e
have remained In the crowded v
old between decks breathing the foul v
ST air ever drawn into human lungs. Z
lore than 100 men have no place to