The Redwood gazette., 1918-03-20
Redwood Boy
Sees Ship Sunk
Budd Geroy Writes of Experience
With Colors; Sees Tuscania At
Time of Sinking
U. S. Naval Base No. II,
CO. Postmaster, New York
February Ii. 1918.


Dear Folks:
I wrote to you few days ago and
told you all that / could think of then
but since then 1 have found out tina.
the censor would let us say more
then we thought he would at first.
One of the ships, the Tuscania, was
sunk in the transport that we came
over in. / suppose that you read all
about it in the papers by this time
but want to tell you how it was ]
saw it.
We were about thirteen days out
from New York at the time and it
was about six o'clock at night. I
was in the first class kitchen at the
time getting something to eat for
one of the fellows that was sick COM
ing over. / heard a loud shot and
ran on deck to see the Tuscania which
was the ship directly behind US have
all of the lights turned on and they
were sending up red rockets from
her as signals. We put on all OF the
speed that was possible and got away
from the submarine that sunk the
Tuscania. There were some of the
passengers that jumped over hoard
off from her but most of them went
in life boats. Later on in the even
ing about ten o'clock there were
some more shots fired and one of
the other ships were firing at onn of
the submarines. After that things
| Quilted down but we were all ready
to go to our life boats any nom ,nt.
1t was really very interesting.
The ship that we came over in, the
Baltic, which is a very large ship
was the ship that picked up the pts-
sengers from the life boats when The
Titanic went down. Among the pas
sengers on board at the time wler I
was on it was Irwin S. Cobb WHO
writes for the Saturday Evening Post.
and Robert Warwick, who is a great
moving picture actor. Cobb gave us
a talk one night and it was very in
teresting. General Pershing wa1
across on the Baltic when he weat
to France. You really ought to see
the ship to realize what mammoth
ship it is. All of the convenisncns
in the world.
The weather here is very fine. All
of the trees are covered with leaves
, and you very seldom need an over
coat. The days are really warm and
the nights are fine and cool. Being
in a strange country is one of the
most interesting things that ] Aava
ever encountered. The customs OF
the country are different, and the
money. 1t is really great sport to
go into store to buy anything and
try to count your money. I ha d a
great time the first day that L was
here trying to make change. I am
going to try and save all of the mon
ey that I can, so that when ] get
back to the states l will have some
money laid away. | think that after
the war is over and if l can get out
of the navy l will come home for a
short visit and then go back to New
York to work. think that I can get
good job in the navy yard in an of
flee where they employ all civilinns
to work. l have had experience in
the work and the pay is good. I like
New York better than any place that
| have been yet and | figure that
that kind of a job will be as good as
any. 1 haven't made up lly minG
entirely as to what l am going to do
but this looks the best at the pres.
ent time.
AS this letter is becoming a triae
lengthy, think that I had better
close, hoping to hear from you al
soon again, remain as ever,
BUDD D. GEROY.
U. S. Naval Base No. II
CO. Postmaster. New York