The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-12-27
REAL SERVICE
in THE NAVY
LETTER FROM
BOY ABOUT HIS FIRST TRIP
ACROSS THE OCEAN,
Hoboken, N. j., Dec. 20, 1918.

Hoboken, N. J., Dec. 20, 1918.
Editor Big Sandy News:
promised long time ago to write
my friends through the Big Sandy
News.
/ shall give brief account of my
experiences since ! left Louisa last
April and l hope 1t will prove inter
esting.
/ left Louisa on April 13, 1918. for
my home at Rainier, Oregon, with the
intention of joining the navy. After
five weeks at home / enlisted in the
U. S. Naval Reserve Forces and re
ported at the Navy Yard at Bremen
ton, Wash, on May 22.
/ shall not dwell on life at the bar
racks. It's about the same as the ar
my cantonment and most everyone is
familiar with that ! was there just
20 days and was notified that was
assigned to a ship, the U. s. 5.
Western Sea" l learned that she
was cargo transport and was dis
appointed because wanted to get on
a fighting ship No use to feel bad
about it though, so resolved to make
the best of 1t. ! began changing my
mind about her as soon as l saw her
She is OF $500 tons burden and fine
looking ship. She was newly paint
ed and all camouflaged beautifully.
We all went aboard and l got a still
better impression of her than ever but
have changed my mind some since
| then.
We steamed from Bremerton to Se-
lattle and began taking on q cargo OF
flour for France. That looked good
to all OF US as we were sure OF get
ting over there before the big scrap
was over.
We were all assigned to our respec-
tive duties before we left Seattle,
was put on as oiler in the engine room.
We put to sea with a full cargo OF
flour and I'll say right here that $500
tons of flour is SOME PILE of flour,
We had a Green crew, none OF the
enlisted mn having been to sea before
land some of the officers hadn't either
On the last day of June we left Puget
Sound and ran out into the Pacific
and struck gale right off the reel
She began rolling in the swells pretty
| hNNiy ehN w pS6oii " 6Vt SEQ Sish
and do what everybody else does wher
they get seasick You never know
how much you have eaten till you get
good and sick at sea. was just a,
sick as anyone, perhaps sicker thar
some and we were all a sick bunch o
boys. That only lasted a couple o
days and began to enjoy my new ex
periences before the weakness left m.
knees.
On the night OF July 23 we strucl
another severe blow and broke down
They called out the entire engine room
{ force and we all went below and foun,
things in a bad shape below decks w
were lying in the trough OF the wave
and she wa rolling so bad you could'n
stand up unless you had something I
hold onto. We got sick again and ha
a merry old time getting our repair
, made. We finally succeeded and Grip
ple6 on to San Francisco where W
laid up eight days repairing. Will
there l had the opportunity of goin
aboard the famous old battleship "Or
egon and visiting my brother, Clyd
who has been in the service fou
months longer than l. We spent
night in Frisco and had a good loo
over the town. l was surprised I
find marks of the earthquake sti
visible all around.
We left Frisco for the Canal on Jul
lS, and had a nice trip down there ex
cepting for the extreme heat. / dout
If you would believe me if told yo
how hot it actually was.
We passed a great many whale
and sea turtles. some of tn turtle
We're four feet in diameter. We ais
saw lot of flying fish. They fly u
) n front of the ship good deal lils
$ birds when you walk through a fiel,
we reached the canal and laid owe
Y there three days. certainly enioye
a being in tropical country. It wa
winter to them and it was so hc
we couldn't sleep inside. Just imae
Inc what sort of a winter that seen
ed to me after spending the winte
in Kentucky few months beforep
\ 1 can't begin to describe the cans
! Itself, as that would make a book n
alone. Without doubt it's the world
greatest piece of engineering and
certainly wonderful sight. The IA
nous Culebra cut through a hill hie
i as the town hill back of Louisa and
wonderful sight. The canal has
1 depth of so feet and is just wide en-
ough for two large vessels to pass an
5 where.
We went through there August firs
ana had a good run to New York. Nc
thing of interest happened from tn
canal excepting submarine sank
SNIP ABOUT 80 miles astern of us OF