The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-02-15
Extract from letter written home

When we left New York I de
cided 90 do as l did last summer
going across. that is write a little
TO you each day. but in that |
did not consider the weather.
Such weather as, we did havel
Perhaps you saw something about
1t IN the papers, we were getting
enough wireless messages from
shore TO lead DC to believe that
papers were full of the doings of
the Fleet. But TO go back--I re
member going up on deck as ~e
steamed slowly out of New York
Harbor with Its snow covered
banks on each side of US and as
saw the great volumes of smoke
pouring out of our tunnels and
felt the throbs of the engines be
meath me q great feeling of exhii
Iteration came stealing over me
a feeling of freedom from things
as they had been and anticipation
OF things that were to be. | al
ways experience that when leay
ing port after having beep in for
solnetine-it used to be the same
way when first started on the
cruise for the summef.35
Then l remember the eager
ness with which / listened to the
unfolding Of the plans for the big
war game in which we were to en-
gage on our way south. and the
pride felt at being one pf the
participants in the pro blem.
Right then however. our pleasant
memories come 20 standstill, fer
some time,
The next day we ran into the
beginning of a storm which was
in the opinion of men Who have
grown old and gre, IN the service
one Of the worst the Fleet ever
encountered. II it had been pos
sible for me 10 write eacu day a
description of the havoc and hart
ships brought on By the storm,
then might have been able to
describe fairly we'll the storm and
the absolute. misery in which we
existed. but such a thing was i'm
possible and now. Icannot give
you any idea of what we were
forced to undergo. The ship wa
rolling an average of sixty degtee
all the time and sometimes she
vent more than eighty which was
rolling some for this, the best
sea. going vessels we have in our
Navy.
Great waves would sweep over
the ship. flooding the compart
ments, putting a part of the ven
tiiating and electrical plants out
of commission, sweeping over
and DESTROYING the ships boats as
if they had been so much DRIFT
wood. One of the ships lost
every boat h { b ad aboard,
steamers included. The veutilat
ing system left US without air in
our quarters for two days, that OF
course added another chapter to
our tale OF woe. Eating and
sleeping while ihe boat was going
through such violent contortionS
were impossibiIities. stalking
around was very dangerous. Sit
ting in our rooms or mess room
was out of the question. even ex-
isting was a terrible" hard prop
ositIon.
Once I attempted to sit down
in my room just then the ship
gave a violent lurch and / went
out Of my room. across the pas
sage-way and up against the en-
gine room bulkhead. closely fol-
lowed by chairs and all other
movable articles in the room.
Everything movable was moved
and everything breakablc was
broken.
THE scenes in our mess room
when any OF Us had the nerve to
attempt to eat were both pitiful
and Iudicrous. We would chase
the food all over the room and II
we were finally fortunate enough
to catch no with it. we woald
either lose It as we we're hurled
bodily up against the sides or else