Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-04-16
GOES THROUGH SUBMARINE AREA
Letter From r. V. StaIey Narrates
incidents of Voyage to England
Writes from Liverpool

Liverpool, England, Mar. n, 1915.
Editor News-Budget:
Possibly a few lines of the old
stuff will not be so bad, SO here
goes again. Not looking for nOtorie-
ty, understand, but taking you at
your word that my friends like to
know where l am, etc., | am going
to slip you a little varnish now and
then by way of fabrication.
| lied to you, Bell, honest l did,
when | wrote from New Orleans that
was going over on a mule boat. |
never liked mules and they never
liked me, and I passed up the job
much as a bum would pass up an in
PRODUCTION to cop.
So i gets a job as third steward
on the British steamer Camoens,
which makes the run from Liver
pool to Brazil and up to the States
and then back to Liverpool
This said boat had just arrived
at New Orleans from Brazil, load
ed to the muzzle with coffee. While
unloading her cargo at the wharf
whispered a few words to the cap
tain who gave me job on the
ship, and I was O. K.
There was no job open for my
companion in crime and SO | was
obliged to smuggle that individual
On board as a stOWaWay, resulting
in the captain raising hill and
putting a block under it when he
found things out. But that is another
story.
Anyway, We steamed down the
Mississippi and out into the Gulf of
Mexico on the morning of Mar l,
bound for Liverpool, via Norfolk
Va, at which port we were not fig
uring on stopping long.
This is the first voyage | ever
made under any but the Stars and
Stripes and | seemed out of place
under the English flag. Being under
the Cross Of St. George and the
Cross of st. Anthony did not pre-
vent me from getting sea-sick, how
ever. I was as sick as l could very
we'll be. Never have I been on the
''briney'' without getting sick.
We had fine weather and a smooth
sea until We got to flirting With
Cape Hatteras and we surely got
"all mussed up going around. We
hit Norfolk, Va, and stayed just
"a hours coaling ship, after which
we ran into coolies of rainy and
stormy weather in which the darling
Camoens was pitched heaven-Wards
at times and then buried under tons
of brine. Some stuff, believe me, for
guy who had not been on the
briney since 1909. Sick? Say, | was
sick. And to make matters worse, |
was the only one on board who was
sick. All the others had been out
over two months and were used to
it.
and I guess they each took a crack
at me, handing me advice. You
know how it goes. One man would
advise drinking sea water, another
would say, NAY, nay, Pauline, no
sea water. Get a bloody big piece
of fat pork with a string tied to
it and swallow the pork, then pull
on the string, don't yer know" Well
| got over it of course. All good
things must end. l am used to it
now and am sorry in way that
the voyage is ever. Ran into some
sunny weather, and our good ship
sailed merrily across some Of the
smOOtheSt water you ever dreamed
Of Running into the War Zone called
for caution, and caution caused a
lot of discomfort in the way Of do
ing without lights at night. Not q
man on board cared if we did get
tOrpedOed and sent down TO "DaVy
Jones' locker" but of course the
steamship company owning the ship
and cargo would object very strenu-
Ously to such a st'unt, so the cap
tain had a bit of a boat drill, in
structed all the arling laddies in
the useful art of buckling on life
belts and other awkward things; eX-
planned to us that our ship being
loaded mostly with. cotton would stay
afloat couple of hours in the hap
Ply event of being hit by a torpedo
or mine. To use his words we would
have time to pack up our clothes,
get wash and a shave and maybe
eat a square meal or two before TAX
ing to the boats" And so on for a
little while in the same strain, think
ing that maybe there were some in
the crew who. might be timid.
Well, we r.ever flew our flag night
Or day until last night when we
hit the real war zone-the neck of
the woods where the German subma-