Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-07-07
LETTER FROM BIN FALES.
Life ON Board IA a :. War steam ship as
Experienced by "a Young Man Well
Known la Belding.

to our readers the following letter re
ceived by Il. f.. Fales from his brother
Blngley so well known to nearly all the
people OF this city and vicinity.
u. S. $. YOSEMITE OFF
JAMAICA, CARIBBEAN SEA,
MONDAY, JUNE l3, 1898.
My DEAR BRoTHER:-I am going tC
write family letter To you and LET
you send it or take it home. The next
to the last letter received before leav-
ing Key West was from you and have
not heard from home since we left
Hampton Roads. hope you are all as
well as ! am and that you may continue
so. | have not missed meal or a
watch since came on ship, in fact
since we left Detroit, so as far AS | am
concerned you need not worry. Well
| hardly know where to begin. We
have not seen paper from home and
only one from any other place since
We left Old Point Comfort on Decora-
tion Day. You had heard from me up
to that point so | will not go back of
that. About May Goth ! was assigned
to the signal squad, IA squad of four
under an officer to do all communica-
tion by flags, lanterns, bells, fog horns,
etc with other ships. Hard physical
work stopped then and we had a chance
to use our heads little. was, Of
course, very busy studying up when
the order came very suddenly to put to
sea so only dropped Il line home. But
my easy snap did not last long. The
first day at sea was sent for by the
executive officer and made an acting
quartermaster. Then hard work be-
gan again combined with mental exer-
else. There are four quartermasters
and when at sea two must be on watch
all the time 50 you see | am on watch
II hours out of "a, four on and four of
except the two day watches which
changes the order every other day.
AT of times we have to sleep, eat,
and scrub clothes, SO there is really no
time one can call his own. have
great bundle of letters which / have
been absolutely unable to answer. |
wonder how much the papers are tell
Ing you OF our movements. | understand
the press was forbidden publishing
movements of war vessels some time ago.
Then an unpleasant incident happened
which shut of all correspondence with
home papers by members of the crew.
The Journal reporter sent dispatch
TO his paper to the effect that the
marines were terrible lot, etc. 1t
was very discreditable article and
aroused IA great deal of feeling among
the marines who made complaint to the
executive officer. May 30th, just about
as we were ready for sea all hands
were called to muster. The article
was read; the executive officer said,
'the man who wrote that article stand
forth. Baker, whose name was signed,
stepped forth. The captain gave him
an awful talking to and ordered him
confined in the brig ships PRISON. for
five days on bread and water.
since that time very few letters
have left the ship and very, very
few have come on board. We left
Hampton Roads May 30th, arrived
of Key West Friday, June Bird at sun
set; cast anchor outside the harbor:
went inside the harbor at "A. IN. June
4th. We went TO Key West to convoy
a steamer, the Armura, loaded with
ammunition for Sampson and Schleys
fleets. At Key West we coaled ship
and on Tuesday, June 9TH, at 10 a. IN.
put of for Havana. Sighted the island
Of Cuba at 2:30 p. m, made out Morro
Castle at p. m. and by $3.50 we were
within five miles OF the Castle where
those OF us on the bridge could, with
our glasses, see the yellow and red flag
Of Spain. We then turned our course
out again aud joined the Amphrite,
the flagship of the blockading squa-
dron which was laying out about seven
or eight miles That night we took
position in the circle of the blockading
squadron which as soon as darkness
covered its movements moved in to
within about four or five miles from
the fort. That began to be real war
like and we kept most careful out
look all that night as we have, in fact,
every night since. On the morning of
Wednesday, June Sth, about sunrise,
the transport Panther arrived from
Key West with 900 marines on board
and orders for US TO convoy her TO
Santiago. We put of at once arriving
at Santiago at a. IN. Friday, June 10.
On the 9th off the north coast of Cuba
we sighted the New York Sun boat
and later in the day saw a small sail
boat putting off from shore. We put
in towards it and picked up four Gu
bans. They were taken on board aud
given hearing by the captain after
which they put off and we proceeded.
The captain said they had no news and