Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-03-28
Word From Local
Soldiers g. Sailors
Hotel Terminus and Buffet gare de
Bordeaux, Saint-Jean,


Bordeaux, Saint-Jean,
Bordeaux. le March S, 1918.
Dear Mother and Father:-We got
Into Bordeaux this morning at 1880
a. m. safe and sound without any
mishaps. AS / told you, Bordeaux
was situated on q river and it took
us about six hours to go up, dis
tance of about 80 miles. We had to
go pretty slowly as the channel is
quite narrow and not very deep. 1t
Is quite a sight to see beautiful French
farm houses each side of the river and
now and then a small village. The
farmers are right on the Job, and we
hardly passed any land that was not
utilized. We saw any number of vine
yards, but naturally not any grapes.
These farms were right on the river,
and, Of course, all the people came
down to cheer at US and wave their
handkerchiefs. etc.
About six miles from Bordeaux we
passed bunch of u. s. soldiers who
were at work constructing docks.
There were also great many ware
houses and supply stations Just as
we were passing them, our captain
blew the whistle twice to a large
transport in front of US, and the cap
tain of that ship answered with one
blast. He was to pass on our right.
but somehow or other, he got mixed
up, and when he saw that he could
not make 1t, he had the anchor cast
but the darn thing would not hold,
and SO the transport went straight
for those new docks. The captain
had the ship put on the reverse speed.
but 1t was of no use. and to make the
story short, when they finally stopped
her, she had split two sailing skiffs
In half, crushed a barge, knocked
the gun mounted on the stern of an
other transport all to pieces, crushed
her stern and broke up lot Of the
dock. The rumor goes around that
twelve people were killed. How true
this is, I do not know, but saw peo-
pie on each Of the small boats and l
doubt II they escaped. 1t was a
pretty bad sight to see this large ship
going right towards all the rest ano
they could not-do a thing to stop her
do not believe that 1t was the fault
of the anchor, but the chain did not
hold as you could hear 1t slip out OF
the port hole continually.
1t took us quite while to get ouI
the ship at twelve o'clock. We natu-
rally then had to have Chow" and sc
a couple Of us breezed into some
small restaurant. We must have pre-
sented some sight, because the wait.
ress talked So much French to us thai
we did not know where we were.
finally managed to tell her that we
wanted some omelet, bread and cof-
fee. Every one had to gaze at us. but
why worry, as we got what we wanted
and went out. Since lunch I have
been walking around the city and. OF
course, I have seen lots of queer
sights. at least they appear queer te
me.
The carriages and vehicles are all
different. Here the women are doing
practically everything. met one
.chopping wood. and she went at II
Just like man. She surely mus
make her husband step around.
We leave tonight for Paris at IL
p. M, but I have not any idea as to
how or what we shall travel on, ex-
pect that 1t will be some kind of a
train.
There are q great many soldiers
here and we have met a lot of U. g.
boys. They look as though they were
being fed o. X. and their clothes look
as good as at home.
Love to all.
HAROLD.