The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-04-04
noNORfD SAILOR BOY

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Davis City Held Big Reception for
! Ralph Bailey. Who Escaped when
His Ship Was Torpedoed.
! Ralph Bailey, Davis City's sailor
boy, who was one of the Survivors
of the Acteon,. which was .torpedoed
off the coast of France on Nov. oath,
and who after being given up for
lost, and spending fourteen days in
I three of the occupants died, and
finally landed on the coast of Spain,
arrived at Davis City Saturday y
sG vst and Mrs fsw HayS wsh BaeV
and his many boyhood friends.
Moines in August, 1915, and has
been making good, being now boat
! swain, the officer who has charge of
the boats, colors, anchors and other
MIS-. mrs B BAILEY have ) another son in the
navy, VIM. R. Bailey, who has been
in the navy for sixteen years, be- !.
an officer on the staff of Admiral
Fletcher, and has just completed the
launching. OF the new battlesilip
| MISSISSIPPI.
| Monday evening a public recep-
Davis City, which was packed and
the yard was also filled, all eager to
pay their respects to their sailor
boy, and hear him describe his ex-
periences Ralph finally reached
New York last week, and was given
a furlough to visit his parents, but
has to report for duty again April
10th.
The reception was presided oyer
by Geo! p. Campbell, the stage be-
ling filled with civil war veterans, a
Spanish war veteran, George Poush,
and one of our new soldier boys, L..
20. Atteberry. After the Invocation
spangled Ini Banner," aT J: NJ. Howell led
in a flag salute, and words of wei
come were spoken by H. L. McClar-
an. Then followed short Speeches
| by old soldiers, Henry Reed, w. H..
McCalla and A. G. Mintoyne, who
told of their war experiences, the
Hsn H1me sfhsel Fires Barsng gns ssng m4s ee2 fes
Grimes sang solo, and George
Poush told Of his experiences in the
Spanish war and the battle of San
Juan Hill in which he participated
A duet by Mrs. Grimes and John
Tharp, a patriotic talk by Rev. shugg
|
hero of the evening, Ralph Bail
ey. Ralph is only nineteen years
old and never made a public speech
| in his life, so no attempt at Oratory
was INDUCED in, but he just rambled
away and old of some of his ex.-
periences in the navy and OF the
terrible trip Of fourteen days in the
lighly of his own part, just as if it
was part of his daily routine. and
taking no credit for his being in
charge of the boat We had a
shorthand reporter on the ground
and took down his talk as we feel
sure that all our readers Will be 80
terested in reading it.
| went to Des Moines to join the
navy, from Des .Moines l went to
the Great Lakes training camp, SO
miles from Chicago. The first thing
that is done they give you a bath,
and haircut thorough haircut,
havn't much left-so. you won't get
nothing in what is left, then you are
fledged sailor-or that's what you
that's what you think, but you find
out different-you are kept isolated
for about three weeks-yOu will de-
velop most any kind of contagious
disease. Well, the first thing you
learn is how to tie a Knott
mOQJQS reg COuISc, DuI udu W
get sick and was in the hospital sew
eral weeks SO l had to have
months. When we left the Great
Lakes we went aboard the North
Dakota dreadnaught-the difference
between super-dreadnaught and a
dreadnaught, a super has all turrets
on the center line, dreadnaugnt l1lig
| went aboard. You had only Il
minAtes to get your hammock put
up and ready for work in the morn
ing. The first thing is to scrub the
deck-have to keep the ship, clean
then you have breakfast-bill of
fare just the same every week,
navy beans on Sunday morning.
navy beans on Wednesday morning,
navy beans on Saturday morning. al
ways have lots of navy beans, don't
get starved in the navy, l gained
about 80 pounds. was pretty
skinny. l had to go in there to get
something to eat-mother dldn 7
smoke a few cigarettes--had to
shine up all the bright works SO tn ,
captain could see his face. 9:15 is
muster, after muster is gun drill.
always have to practice-12 inch
guns on the North Dakota. We
drilled for championship. worked
some fast. shots in a minute and
20 seconds; after fire drill is collision
drill. then a fire and rescue drill,
SO you can learn to go ashore and
help but there is lots, OF work in
that and no glory and no paw. Ihen
we were transferred from the North
Dakota to the battlesiip Oklahoma
say she was a big boat, or she
looked that way when l looked her.
over. There were abotr 900 otn-
ers--we went aboard, had to take
oul stores, supplies. and they would
Davis City, and some Of tile Leon
stores-took us about 48 hours.
We sleep in hammocks, crawl in,
have about 18 inches of atmosphere,
YOU fasten them at either end. then
take hold of the other end and jump:
One poor guy fell. out and busted