New Britain herald., 1917-10-18
RUSH FOR BOATS
 WHEN SIREN BLOWS
William H. Buell. Describes Effect
 of Danger Signal

Describing wildly the second leg of the trip overseas the following letters from William H. Buell. to his parents in this city are reproduced below. From the time his ship leaves the harbor Somewhere on the Allan tic" until it is passing the rugged shores of Greenland the writer tells in his own characteristic way the dangers of trip and of the experiences encountered:
 August 2.
 Dear Father and Mother:-
 I will try and write a letter every day and hope there will be nothing the censor will think best to cut out. The thing of most importance Is that at o'clock last evening we started to steam out of the harbor that you wired to. There are five of us and we pick up more ships outside of the harbor. What a sight and what a sensation as we steamed out, out, out to what, God only knows. Some of the fellows were more affected at leaving here than they were when we left New York. Now we know we are going into the danger zone. If we could only see the Boche when Ilc SCI1hSS. IL IS d very ulpIcdSduI feeling to think that he is apt to strike in the night. Danger one can't face is far worse than facing a gun. We are second in the line. The first is a convoy bristling with guns. There are U. s. regulars aboard her. Then on the we have the Field Serv- ice 18th engineers from the middle west, a corps of aviators, and a corps of signal men and a corps of medics. Then comes the with the rail- way engineers from the South. The -. with troops from places in New England, mostly from Boston and Springfield. Last comes the with South American Indians from some British possessions.
 The-is loaded with 5000 China men from British Columbia. She starts three days after us and gets into Liverpool two days ahead of us. She is nearly as big as the-in New York harbor. She has been running the blockade for three years and our boat for two years. This is the first time our ship has ever had a convoy We passed many boats on our way out to sea. One was British battleship The marines took off their caps and gave three cheers for us. Then the band played the Star Spangled ban ner. Believe me that is some spirit. It made us feel great can assure you.
 The activities in the engine room are very interesting. There are three seprate engines in this ship, conse- quently three reverse and three for ward speed levers. A man stands at each reverse and each forward speed lever at all times. He must hold  stands in reserve behind each man at all times also. These men work two hours then rest four hours, the same as in the sub-patrol guard. The safety of the ship depends upon it's quick ness when a sub is sighted. We can't throw anything overheard, not even match If anything floats and a sub- marine sights it they could follow us. All refuse from the ship is placed in tin cans, sealed, thrown overheard and in this manner goes to the bot tom. There are fifty men stationed all around the ship as sub-patrols, they work two hours and rest four through out the twenty-four hours The con- stant rise and fall of the water makes the most experienced sailor seasick at the end of hours. Every one is keyed up to the highest ten- sion now, more than when we left New York When we first started out ten days ago we then had sus- picion that we were not going straight across. If we could only see the dan ger but the Boche fights so unfair.
 We ran into a heavy fog last even ing. The signal to get to the life boats is a siren. We were all in bed at o'clock and about 10 o'clock the siren blew. We all jumped like mad you may be sure. Some entirely lost their heads and started for the life boats without any clothes on or even their life belts. Dix (my roommate) and I got fully dressed, put on all our clothes, our sweaters and sheep skin coats before we went on deck. Of course we were excited too. It is better to go out dressed than to get into an open boat on the cold water in pajamas. The person who takes time to dress is not going to freeze to death. When we got out we found they were only trying the siren to see that it worked all right before we got too near the danger zone. After that sleep came hard as we were so completely awake. Today some are wearing their life belts and sitting next to the life belts. One fel- low in the room next to mine went on deck in his pajamas. barefoot and without his life belt.
 August 3.
 Not much doing today. I haven't eaten that sweet chocolate you put in my grip. Think I had better wait until We get into-. We had life boat drill today We passed seven smacks at anchor and two steamers bound for the states. Sea is very calm We expect that it will be rough when we get off the Irish coast Today we are about 400 miles from New York with about 2,6OO miles to go. The convoy sighted a c,,h hut if Y1ado off when fired on