The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-12-26
/ Letters from and About Soldiers


ArtEUr LQfIS. no enHStel early m
kpril. 1877. has at least ore German
sui mar ne 10 his record The yoarg
man. the Only Hood River boy " hu has
seen service aboard an overseas sub
chaser. ana conraie dropped over
board depth bomb, {, flowing the eX-
piuS ion If Uhicl the surface Of the sea
MAS covered with oil and debris from
Wreck ID boat
Mr.. Lofts parents, Mr.. and Mrs. A.
c. Lofts. have lust received their inst
uncersortG letter from their son. ana
tn il he Tecltes Interestingly number
of the hichwater mark events Of his
career in patrol aud convey service.
[ The letter was written at Plymouth.
Eng, on Thanksgiving day.
On May Is, 1915, he SAYS. I'VE
sailed from New Lordon, - sub chas-
ers. five big government tugs and some
converted yachts. Our mother ship,
/ the L. :. 5. Hannibal, escorted US.
-Four days later, after a good voyage.
We anchored IN the harhor Of Haull-
ton. 10 the Bermuda Islands This
was our first foreign port, and we ad
great time had heard at
deal ab, ut the great resorts IN Bsr-
muda but had never expected to see
them. 1ne negroes do all the work
and the whites boss the job. England
mas a great naval base there.
We were all nearly starved upon
our arrival, for our cook had been sea-
sick and the crew had lived on salt
horse, hardtack and water, with d
piece of meal sometimes. After
good rest we were supplied with more
food water, engine parts and a seago-
ng cook and put to sea again. We
headed east. Twelve days later we
sighted the Azore Islands. Just off the
'oast Of Spain and the property Of
Portugal
The only real town is Porta Del
Gorda. on the Island of San Miguel.
For II DAYS we on board had not
washed or shaved. for a sub chaser
carries very little water and salt
water is worse than useless for toilet
purposes We were sorry, tired
rev, can tell YOU
1T is the firm belief of many offic-
ers and men of the chasers that some
where on this stage of our trip We
passed the fleet of German subs which
| later raided otf the coast of the United
| States.
an the Azores they use Portuguese
money, in units of the reis, of which
900 make dollar Can you imagine
| the uuarres we had with the natives
over change? They cheated us right
and left The only thing we could buy
was fruit, oranges and pineapples. We
were all sick from eating 50 many Of
them.
"A After rest, Washup and repairs,
we started in four days again east
and then northeast, and IA days later
We arrived in Brest. France. The sea
mad been very rough. Subchaser l43
had man washed overheard and never
found him We took fuel from a tank
ship accompanying US, Brest Is one OF
Lhe largest ( :. naval bases and
lheve we found many u. ; ships and
estroyers. We had a good welcome
md that night | wrote to you and sent
jhe letters on the transport Lincoln
She was torpedoed and sunk just oft
the French coast good bye letters
So | wrote again and the letters Were
placed board the u. $. ). California,
another transport. and she was tcrpe-
ioed | thought would never get a
letter through. couldn tell you
ttout it, So after that sent two let
tors to YOU. The day We sailed from
France 10 England tn d. 5. ). Gov
llgtun was sunk with more letters, and
weren't We mad The whole chaser
Ae. patrolled the whole French Coast
rilht away and bombed to beat the
deuce. We arrived IN England June
30. my birthday.
From then on it was work, calm or
5tormy, conveying and patrolhng from
here to France ana back again. Then
we took a trip into the IRISH Channel,
after that to brest and then into the
English Channel. Later we went down
the French coast, hunting. guarding,
bombing ard listening until we were
ali nearly dead. Those months were
real war Even the English govern
ment eluted us the credit tor one
uh, ana our own base gave US credit
for more. We know we have sunk
several.
On day in October we were out
ahead of big convoy Of merchant
ships leaving Plymouth. Just as We
we're out Of sight Of land an English
4rship came rushing back and slnaled,
Have sighted sub dead ahead. Away
We went, engines red hot and guns
aswing. was on the depth charge
chutes with Smith. The sub was wait
ing for crack at our convoy and
iidn { think we had spotted her. They
amt watch airships or planes very
we'll With the arship overhead the
81 ftrht "a
Wasn't excited? The air5hip droppei
her light bomb to mark the spot where
the sub had gone down, and 80 seconds
later we crossed the spot and the cap
I tain yelled. Let er go. Those bombs
i weigh 80 pounds each, but Smith anC
7 just naturally picked it up and threw
, / down the chute. Set at % feet We
/ gave her two feet extra for good meas
/ ue. The airship gave her one also
/ Honest, | can't describe the noise anc
/ lar when they went off. 1t soundec
|, and felt like the world had come to al
/ end A moment later oil and all kind,
/ Of Wreckage came up, and we knew
/ we had a sub. At an easy estimate
we sent 80 Germans and three officers
/ to hell that time. An hour later The
merchant ships came over the spot anC
/ reported great quantities of oil and al
| kinds of stuff on top of the water
|. This is only an incident. Those bomb,
/ cost YOU folks about $470 each. but W,
/ should worry. | know | always useC
/ to roll EN- off with a blessing We
/ have used lots Of bombs and lots o.
l food Now if we can get back saft
| everything will be fine. There is biz
Il report that these boats are to be SOLE
/ to the British and French. Our cap
Il tain told US about it All of us fel
i lows hope SO. Although everyone i.
II game to do his bit, none of us wants tc
/ make winter trip across the Allan
u tic in chaser.
I'VE had good dinner today and
lot Of boxing and wrestling rnatche
i this afternoon. got on the good sid,
II of the cook and he slipped me a who'll