The Delta independent., 1917-12-14
U. S. S. Huntington.
Some Place at Sea.
November %, 1871

-NONtHDCl E-r A'l'-
Ny Dearest Loved Ones at Home:
/ am going to write this letter at
spare times so that when we get to
New York ] will have a big long
letter ready to mail.
| suppose you got my letter tel
ling you about when we were ready
to leave New York. Well we left
the next day after | wrote that but
we didn't go to France. We went to
Halifax, Novia Scotia, where we were
supposed to be stationed to chase
German raiders, but on arriving
there we found that we had to take
commission across to England con-
sisting of Colonel House, Wilson's
special advisor. Admiral Benson and
Col MacCormick, U. S. N, and Col.
Houses family, also Genl Bliss We
sailed to Devonport, Eng. and was
there / think about ten or twelve
days.
a M, November %. On watch
again. You see l don't have much to
do while ! am on watch but sit under
blower where they fan the fresh
air in. and ! had just as we'll write.
Well, will try to finish about our
trip. After we went to Devonport
they put up notice saying that any
one wanting to go to London who
had s25 would be granted forty
eight hour leave Well of course !
was shy the twenty-five, so l did not
get to go, but / was pretty well sat
isfied as it was. could say l had
been to England anyway but ! was
badly disappointed in the liberty we
got in Devonport. Only got to go
ashore once and just barely had time
to catch me an English girl, so you
see / didn't have much time. AS, if
you don't get a girl over there they
will get you. There are about ten
girls to the square yard over there,
and the Yanks as they call we Blue
Jackets are soon made fast" But
they are not much like the American
girls. If you show them a good time,
that is all they care for. They don't
/ try to work you out of your last mic
kle and then get sore because you
haven't any more But if they had
been looking for some one with kale
they would have been out OF = luck
with me for | was about three dollars
short of having anything. Just
enough to eat on. but that was piens
ty. for there was plenty to see while
! was there. The town was a pretty
good sized place. Devonport's popu-
lation is $1,000 and Plymouth is
2lO0 and they are only short dis
tance apart The odd part of it was
the streets which are so narrow and
crooked that the people had to walk
! in the middle OF the streets and may
be that didn't look funny to us. you
! see they gave no over night liberty
only from twelve noon until twelve
midnight. And along about eleven
in the evening when we were start
ing to the ship, when we got to the
main street. as Peterson and /, he is
a fellow who lived in Gunnison two
or three years, had been to take our
girls home. there was the blamedest
crowd you ever saw and they were
all walking in the middle of the
street. They put out most all of the
lights there at sundown so l guess
they could not tell which was the
sidewalk and which was not.
tell you. the people in the U. S.
don't realize what a sad state of af-
fairs things were in over there be
fore we went into the war. Meat
you can hardly buy. except ham and
bacon. You have to pay fifty cents
for ham and eggs, then you get one
egg and a small piece of ham. You
pay extra for a cup of coffee and
butter when they bring you two
/ slices of bread with your order they
put a little butter on it. So little
though you can hardly see it. The
coffee must have been doctoring it
was so awfully weak. | don't think
n crutch would have done much good,
Well | guess ! have told you about
all can think of. That is the most
beautiful country around there YOU
ever saw, IL is divided into little
| tracts about two to six acres each
| by stone fences and hedges and the
Il 4. rs.1,
an artist, so | could have made one
fine picture. The harbor is sure one
beautiful place too. Coming into it,
| il is about two or three miles from
the mouth of it to the dock where
we tied -. But along with IL there
We're some awful sights; men with
/ arms and legs shot off: eyes out:
and parts of their faces shot off. l
tell you England was whipped
nation until we went over there and
they are just scared to death of a
submarine. Why the boys on our
torpedo boats over there say that
they started out into the channel
with some of them when they first
went over to be shown where the
patrolling lines were. A sub showed
his beak and the American boats fell
in line for battle: when they looked
around the English torpedo boats
were hiking 1t for the harbor as fast
as they could. They say when The
English are out with convoy il
| they see n sub they run like blazes
and leave the ship for the subs But
the old u. S torpedo boats sure have
the Germans scared. There is a
bunch that does nothing but patrol
the English channel. There they
call them the English Bear Cats and
believe me II is considered lucky