The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1901-12-26
A LETTER
From Reuben o. DolIison who Is In
The Signal Corps, Co. H., at
Philippine Islands.


he has landed safely at Manila,
and the following very interesting
letter has been received from him
by his father, F. w. Dollison:
MANILA, p. l., Nov. II, 1901.
Dear Parents and Sisters NO
doubt you are anxious to hear
from me and to know something of
my trip. Before giving you the
trip, 1 will give you little de-
scription of the boat: 1t was one
of the U. S. Transports, named
"Thomas," after Gen. Thomas I;
length 500 feet and about so feet
wide; it was constructed Of steel,
only the spar, deck and cabins be-
ing of wood; it was well lighted
with electric lights, there being an
electric plant on the boat, then
the water pipes were all through
it, and plugs or taps at different
places, and hose by them to be
used for washing the decks, and
in case of fire in the cabins. The
crew numbered about 200 men,
and there were about $50 passen-
gers on board also; there have
been as many as 1900 soldiers on
board the transport; you can i'm
agine the size of her coal bunkers,
when it took between rs and 80
tons of coal per day to keep her
moving. You can also imagine
my feelings when they found the
bunkers on fire, and took a week
to put it out; it started from the
damp coal and heat down under
the coal, and kept a smouldering
fire going, and they had to use
steam to extinguish it, to keep
from having an explosion. That
is about the size of it, SO 1 will
try and give you brief descrip-
tion of the trip.
We left San Francisco, October
10th, at IL o'clock noon; had good
seas for two days, and then it be-
gan to get rough it was just rough
enough to make one sea sick, but
/ managed never to have to eat
the same meal twice. I was in
bed four days, and then 1 got over
itall; the fifth day out the sea
was worse; could hardly lay in bed
on account of the boat rolling and
jumping; some of the waves were
% or 80 feet high, and when the
boat would go over one wave to
the other, the water would come
over the top deck sometimes 2 feet
deep, and the wind blowing so it
was impossible to stand up. This
was on the Northern route, and
the storm kept getting worse, and
the Captain changed the route to
the south; after we had gone
south for two or three days, the
weather was betterl' and the sea
smoothe. Leaving San Francisco
it was cold, but after taking the
Southern Route and getting into
good seas, it was much more pleas.
ant. There were a great many
; things of interest besides the
rough seas; when about $500 miles
from land you can see thousands
J of little flying fish; they start VI
swiftly and fly for about 100 feet
} and then in the water again
l They look to be about 8 or II
inches long. / saw one shark, i
was about 20 feet long, and abou
as big around as horse; I though
it was good thing there were nj
, sharks in Old Town.
} The thing that interested m
most was the volcano. The Cap
J tain changed the course of tn
ship to see it. 1t is on the frs
island of the Ladrone Group o
3 Islands; we cited it at noon, a
, about Is minutes till 10, and q
four o'clock, passed within mil
, of it; it looked to be about 80
t feet high, with great opening j
the top, and clouds of smoke woul
e come from;it. You could see tn
streams of cold lava on the side
of it; the base Of it must hay
been warm, for where the wave
. dashed on it, there would be steal
rising from it.
Every Saturday at 4:S0 thel
was "man overheard" drill. Tw
' life buoys were thrown into ii
, sea, and boat was lowered, file
80 l..