The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-06-28
NEWSY LETTER
FROM ENGLAND
FORMER BROOkINGS BOY NOW
WITH BASE HOSPITAL CORPS
WRITES OF TRIP ACROSS
VOYAGE THROUGH NINE STREWM SEAS
Description Of English Manners and
Customs Interesting and
Entertaining

Here is the graphic tale of a former
Brookings boy who is now a member
of Base Hospital No. 2, in foreign
service. Walter Reeves is the son
of H. II, Reeves, formerly cashier of
the Bank of Brookings:
B~lackpool, England,
Monday, May 20, 1917.
My Dear Folks:-We arrived safely
in Blackpool. which is q winter re-
sort about an hour and twenty min
utes ride from Liverpool, about noon
today. You will have received notice
of our safe arrival across the ocean
long before this letter reaches you.
and may rest easy for a while at least.
Barring n day of stormy weather,
we had a perfect trip.
There is so much of interest to
tell-much of it may be cut out by
the censor until we learn just what
may be sent-that | hardly know
where to start.
The war zone is not at all well
posted, so do not know exactly when
We reached it, but it was some time
on Friday. There were several ex-
citing moments during the remainder
of the trip; most of them. however,
were caused by false alarms. The
sailors claim TO have run down a
submarine. Two or three were sad
to have been sighted from the ship,
but | saw none whatever myself.
The submarine said to have been
run down was attempting to pose as
a small sailing vessel, but the captain
argued that such a small sailing crcft
would not be so far from shore, ana
acte uin2ly and headed straight
for ii The boat sank just before
or after we hit it. at least so the
story goes.
We were met by conveys on Sat
urday morning, and you may well
believe a United States cruiser fyin2
the good old Stars and Stripes never
looked as good as that first one
which met us. 1t conveyed us for
several hours, zigzagging a quarter of
a mile or so in front of our boat.
As soon as the first left. another
picked us up. Three different cruisers
did this, the last one staying close
by until almost dark, then started
off reported to have sighted a U-boat
somewhere off the course. During
the day we saw quite a little drift
wood, apparently from sunken ships,
and on two occasions the spars Of
two sunken boats GU - low drift
looking for all the world like pen
scopes. One Of the cruisers gave
chase to one and fired several shots
at it. Two bodies were seen floating
in lifebelts Ct believe | saw one1,
and two empty lifeboats were passed
showing that some ship had been sunk
IN the immediate vicinity, and the 0c-
cupants of the lifeboat picked up
could not realize any special dan
ger throughout the whole trip. Had
! been able to, / probably would
be more or less uneasy, and. as MANY
in the boat did, would have paced
the decks at night. Many of Us,
while observing the sensible precau
tons, slept below, as we would have
done under ordinary conditions. On
Saturday night, however, we stayed
on deck, more for the sake Of see
ing what safety measures were taken
at night. All on board were Of
course provided with life belts; tho
lifeboats were lowered to the Level OF
the main deck, each person was as
signed to a definite post and a definite
duty.
Saturday evening we reached the
"~Graveyard," that stretch of ocean be-
low and along the Irish coast. This
was said to be about the most dangec-
Gus part of the voyage, but NOTHING
unusual happened. We sighted land
for the first time about s a. m. Sat
urday evening, but were unable to
see more than a faint outline Of land
on the horizon until late Saturday,
both on account of the width of the
Irish channel and a comparatively
heavy fog which settled down about
Vol We arrived in the river lead
ing to Liverpool about 6 o'clock Sun.
day evening. and soon reached Liver
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