The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-01-09
Entered as second class mail mat
ter at the Postoffice Of Morgan City,
La.
LETTER FROM ENGINEER OF
CHERMONC AFTER DISASTER

OlCCu from MS 1IlcuO MI. DdhcI
engineer of the i'll fated ship, Cher
mong.
Valencia, Nov. %, 1916.
My Dear Friend:
Have learned from the American
CONSUL that it may be about thirt!
days before we can get passage Il
the States, so will write you an &C
count of my trip on the S. S. Cher
mong, as l feel sure that it will b.
Of interest to you to learn Of thu
little ships untimely ending in the
MEDITERRANEAN sea.
We were loaded with munitions Of
war to the summer draft which was
IL" too deep for q winter trip, how.
ever we or rather the owners were al.
lowed to send her to sea in that con-
dition. had some misgivings about
her safety and tried to get man to
take my place, but the owners and
captain insisted on my going, saying
that it would be fine trip and be-
sides my pay would be more than
twice as much as I could make run.
ming on coaster and 50 I consented
against my better judgment.
Well we left New York City the
evening Of New. 9Th and encountered
bad weather from the very start
which continued to get worse every
day. The wind was from sw shifting
to NV and back to sw every day, and
steadily Increasing in velocity until
It was blowing gale, with mount
aims Of sea boarding usf rom both
sides, keeping the matches covered
with 8 feet Of water most of the
time. On the, night Of New. 18th the
sea was breaking on top Of the cabin
and almost wrecked one of the life
boats. / could not sleep 50 got up
about midnight and went on the
bridge, finding the captain and
chief mate who seemed to be very
much worried and must confess
that too was very anxious about
the safety Of the ship, as well as Of
myself and stayed UP all night with
the captain making q tour Of inspec-
ton through the engine room every
half hour to see that the pumps were
keeping the water down in one of
the double bottom tanks which had
sprung leak and was making So"
Of water every hours, although the
big ballast pump would hold it
down alright. l was very anxious
shout it, however, every thing in my
worked fine and the |
little shop Of 2611 gross tons was
doing fine and making good time.
About 6 a. m. the weather seemed to
be moderating and so the captain
md / turned in and slept until about
10 q. m. when we found that the
Wind had gone down quite consider
lble, still there was heavy sea roll
ng which kept our bulwarks full Of Il
vater, however, the barometer was
.oing up and down and we were all
ceiling quite cheerful. That night
aov. 18th about 10 p. m. we sighted
be lighthouse on Fayal Island which
ras . welcome sight to US as we were!
'etting close to shelter and q much
eeded rest. We anchored in the
arbor Of Fayal at about 8 a. m.
'ov. 10th laying there that night
aking about 800 tons Of bunker !
oal leaving Monday morning,
into a terrific wind and
=, which luckily only lasted "a 9
ours then we had nice smooth wea-
~ on to Gibralter, . distance Of
l26 miles from Layal, where we !
ped about four hours to clear
- pen proceed through the straits
10 the Meditefrane sea. Left 9
ibealtar It I: 80 >. m. No. 25th ?
Id up the Spanish coast al night. :
y next morning Sunday. the wea- !
Ter was simply ideal, no wind or :
= and the sky was y bright as = !
~ silver dollar. which was proba- 2
y our undoing, 1t any rate Ct :
$50 .. N. . German submarine :
gnalled ~ TO stop By firing twol
- - n - = \