The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-17
LIEUT.. H. B. GRAY, JR.,
 WRITES OF HIS TRIP OVER THE ATLANTIC
Headaches From Closed Port Holes Only Unpleas- ant Feature of Voy-
 age, He Says

fteaOacheS from lnSu1Hclent ar, que lo closing of portholes, comprised the only disagreeable feature of the trip across the Atlantic of Lieut.. Henry B. Gray, Jr, who has arrived in Europe, and has written his father, former Lieutent Gov ernor Henry B. Gray, about the voyage
 Except for the darkness at night and the absence of girls, one would find 1t hard to believe that this is war ven ture," he wrote. And the best part Of it all. he concludes, is that there is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you are doing your bit.'
 The letter is dated, Monday septem- ber F, and is as follows:
 To-day we are somewhere in midocean, and so far have had a most uneventful trip. Not only have we seen no signs of U-boats, we haven't seen any kind ex- cept those in our party, of which there is quite a large fleet. I'm glad of 1t, too; it helps to break the monotony of seeing nothing but water; it gives an added sense of security, and finally it makes you know that even if you are torpedoed there will be someone to pick up your lifeboats. We have plenty of the latter, and each man has been assigned place in specific boat, so that in case of an engagement there will be very little con- fusion. It seems funny to be writing all this because if we should happen to get blown up, of course this letter would go down with the ship
 SHIP ENTERTAINMENT
 We do the usual things of ship life
 read, play cards, shuffie board. quoits,
 etc. Indeed, except for the darkness at night and the absence of girls, one would
 find it hard to believe that this is war adventure. We are certainly lucky to have only officers on board. All the other troopships with us have hundreds
 of troops and look very crowded, while we have unlimited deck space. Only at
 night is it disagreeable. Then the fact ! that all the portholes are locked down | to keep light in also seems to keep out | air. The result is that you get up with I a headaches every morning. However, 1 no one kicks It is recognized as a ne- cessity and there is no desire on our
 part to relax in our precautions, for de- l spite the levity on the surface, every i man on board will admit that he feels far from safe Our slogan Is: Beat,
 drink and be merry, for tomorrow we
 may be torpedoed.'
 "We were in the port from which l wrote my last letter several days, as you may have guessed from the fact that l it took so long to reach you. Mail didn't
 leave the ship until we were ready to l sail and then it had to go to New York | to be censored and posted-all this in 1 order to keep our movements secret. We l are travelling very slowly, and While l we get very little information, 1t is thought that we will be on board nearly l a week longer. Personally, I'm ready 1 to land now. I've been living on board ship almost two weeks The one pleas ant feature is that our food has con- l tinued to be excellent-no one could wish l better We've had good weather too; l fairly cold, but little rain and less | roughness Only yesterday has the sea been especially high, and there has | been almost no sickness. We seem to 1 have a good bunch of sailors.
 "I've managed to do little studying 1 every day and have accomplished about l all can now 1t is simply a question l of practice in speaking French, and un- fortunately there Is no opportunity for l that on board.
 SAW NO U-BOAT
 l Saturday, September 22.
 l we are in sight of land and due to go l on shore tonight or tomorrow. Our trip 1 continued as it started. We saw no U-boats and probably won't see any. | However, there is still danger and our l convoy is still with us. We were fortu- nate in having rough weather from the
 time we hit the danger zone. high seas being great hindrance to submarines. | iobt nrIo tn hyoo
 notony and lessen suspense, we had a vaudeville, the proceeds to go to the Red l Cross Not only Was it a great success as an entertainment. but we also cleared
 $1OO All in all, I've enjoyed the trip but I'm glad 1t is over. I'm anxious tc
 find out what I am to do and get at 1t l I've never felt better, and there Is lot