The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-20
POOR FOOD BANE OF TERRI T ORIALS
 BOUND FOR WAR
Bridgeport Young Man With Canadian Contingent
 Tells of Trip.

Dodge of State street, this city, has written. to his parents. MT. Dodge is a private in No, section, Div. Amna. Col, Second Canadian Contingent, British Expeditionary Contingent. Private Hodge was at OtterpooI camp, near sharnsclifHe, when he wrote the following letter May 2e. Since then hia parents have not heard from him and they believe he is now with his regiment in trenches in France or else. with the British and their Allies at the Dardanelles, His letter, which follows, shows he has powers of ob- servatieni above those of the average private soldier:
 otterpooI Camp, Near Shornechffe,
 May 28. 1915.
 Dear Mother and Father:
 Well here I am in England at last, a place where have often wanted to be. However, I had better start from the first and give my experiences as they came. Instead of leaving Montreal as expected on Friday, the 18th, we marched down to the boat oH Saturday at about 7:3e p. rn., getting great send-off from the crowd who followed us right down to. the boat. The quarters on the boat were misera- b1e, merely a. place about the size of a box stall and in this space eight men were packed, down level with the wateriine. I had to sleep in this pen the first night. on Sunday. how eyer, with the aid of a little pull and something tos grease the stewards hand, four of us managed to get a second class cabin where things were very much better than they were be- low. We left Montreal Sunday morn ing at about 3 o'clock and passed Quebec at about s30 e clock the same, afternoon. We did not dock but merely slowed down for some head. quarters officers who had missed the boat at Montreal. had g. lot of the places of interest pointed out to me as we went along. by 2 Quebec man very interesting to me as had never seen Quebec before excepting from across the river and that so long ago that it was only a hay memory. We had on board with us Sections and 3 of the Div. Axnm. Col, the first from Toronto. and the latter from Wipnipeg; the Fourth Brigade Heavy Artillery, corp Of cyclists rom To- Fontc, aTT1ongst whom I met a cuple of fellows I knew in Port Arthur; squad of Nursing Sisters and the Uni yersity Of Toronto General hospital corps, in all about 1000 persons
 On Monday. the 17th, while going down the St. Lawrence, I saw my first whale and it was sure some irsh. right
 
 we were getting was miserable and the climax was reached Monday noon when about all there was on the table was ship biscuits with good sized juicy magotsN crawling through them. Nat uraIly I didn't get much of a meal. There was such a howl raised at this meal that the grub improved at once and was not too poor the rest of the way across. We started physical . drill his nothing (Monday, 17th1 and kept it up twice d day all the Way across. Also we were given instrnc- tions in the use of life pPeseryers and told off to the different boats.
 All the way down the St. Lawrence we had beautiful warm weather. and did not strike any cold until after we had passed Cape Race here was quite good chop in the Gulf and ssy- era1 of our boys and Q lot Of the oth- CTS were laid up with sea sickness. was not bothered, however. all the way across although we struck some pretty weather in nid-AtIantic. For this I was 0c course very thankful though did not believe I would get sick before left. Just before we sighted the Newfoundland coast we passed fleet of about 80 hshting smacIxs and it was beautiful sight to see them come along. one after another, bending over in graceful shape before the stiff breeze. On Wednesday we lost the last sight of land and passed a good many small ice bergs and one sor two large ones. We ran into heavy fog in the even ing and practically lay to all, night. Here also had my first sight of DOT pofses, a whole school of them play ing around the bow of the boat On Thursday we had it cold and dreary all day with a strong wind blowing
 A Tl<< bunch were laid up with sea sickness and didn't, care whether the boat hoated or sank. f-put in the most of the day behind one of the boats on the fore deck, out of the spray, enjoying 7 the roll and toss as I did the whole trip. On Friday morning, the Est, we were all given a bad start by the fire bell ringing and the whistle blowing. There was absolutely no panic, how ever, everyone turning out in their proper places with their life preserv- CTS on. only to find that it was a false alarm for the purpose of finding out how the crowd would act. Saturday we got beautiful day, warm as the middle of June with the sea just like a mill pond A lot of the sick fellows got up heart enough to come on deck and promptly felt better. On Satur- day, the 23rd, we had divine service at 10 a. n.. the service being conduct ed by a U. of 2. man. in the cycIfst' S corps.
 On Monday, the 24th, we paraded for a royal salute in the morning, and in the afternoon we had quite line E of sports, boxing. tug-of-war, etc. We passed two large full rigged ships in :. the afternoon and a couple of tramp steamers near evening. On Wednes- day, the 26th, the war was brought home more closely to most of us as we picked up our escort-tWo large destroyers in their war paint. There were a good many of the boys pretty nervous about submarines and their anxieties were frightened tremendously when the destroyers came along. They certainly made fine sight as they swung around parallel with us. We were escorted right into Plymouth Sound where we came to anchor