The citizen., 1918-10-03
LETTER FROM LIEUT.. CLEVELAND
FROST
September 10. 1918.

IL seems ages since ] saw you and
Father in Columbia. But we got
away in very good shape, right on
the tick of the minute. Our trip to !
an unmentionable Atlantic port, and
our installation in an unspeakablc
Camp was uneventful. There was
the usual Red Cross courtesy at sew
eral stops, and the men ate and
slept and played cards and gam
bled and sang in orthodox manner.
My first shock came at Camp -,
where I ran into a Quartermaster
Major who seemed lost in our area.
He said that one Of the 5. A. r. ID.
Batteries was to go out the next
day, and asked which was the best
prepared. OF course | told him
mine was, and he took me up on it'll
Ted Sullivan and | Immediately set
TO work, getting our final equipment,
and were getting along swimmingly
when word came down that we
were to be split, one detachment
going one day, and the rest the next.
So we worked till 5 a. m. and | got
Ted on the road twenty-three hours
after our arrival in Camp-a record
time for the Port. BY four o'clock
the next morning | had finished
equipping my men, checked up all
my discarded equipment, completed
my reports and closed my records.
We spent the morning cleaning up
our quarters and getting everything
in shape for departure, leaving the
gate of the Camp on the dot at noon.
We had TO march about three miles
to the pier, getting thoroughly
soaked enroute by a cats and dogs
thunder storm, but arriving at the
pier singing Hail, hail, the gangs
all here" II is impossible to dam
pen the ardour of troops going over
seas. The Red Cross ladies were at
the pier with cigarettes, apples and
| cards to be mailed when the ship
| arrives in France. Then a bunch OF
| Quartermaster and Adiutant Gen
eral lieutenants swarmed down on
us to make final check of my rec
ords and check the men aboard the
tug.
Our departure from land was
made i'm a. little harbour tug, but
just the same it gave me quite a
thrill. IL was day / had been
living for for a long time. The tug
/ fretted down the harbour and final
| ly lay alongside little six thous-
and ton freight steamer, already
loaded to the guards with a general
cargo. We piled aboard, the men
/ going below to their sardine quar-
ters and | reporting to the Captain
with my. orders. The ships officials
were very much peeved at our COM
ing aboard so soon, since they were
not yet through coaling and the ship
was in a horrible mess-cOal rat
ting down through the chutes, the
dust flying everywhere, swarms Of
/ Negroes at work making fast the
| the deck cargo, and frenZied officers
yelling through megaphones. How
ever. we added our number TO the
confusion without making any ap-
preciable difference, became a part
of it and were quite blissfully hap
ny and soon just as dirty as any
sailor on the high seas. The Exec
utive requisitiOned gangs of my men
to help. am quartered in a tiny
stateroom with first lieutenant of
the Quartermaster Corps, who is in
charge of the ships cargo, and it
requires very precise coordination
for us TO accomplish the movements
incident TO existence without bang
ing into each other.
The ship is a converted German
vessel, and our dishes bear the name
of Hamburg. She rides very low in
the water and already some of my
men have been soaked by waves
breaking over the forward deck. II
We have any rough weather Wen
all be confined below decks.
My men, most Of whom had never
: seen the ocean before, are all agoe
with everything, from life belts tC
general alarms. and were delighted
7, when a call came for loOkouts to as
sist in the crows nests. We have
taken charge Of seven posts aboard
ship, and already two general
alarms have been sounded on ac-
count of over nervous loOkouts.
The crows nests are great fun
cOsey steel cubby holes high up or
the masts, accessible after climbing
up some fifty feet Of rope ladder anc
as many more Of steel. One can sec
about thirty miles from them.
watched the last lighthouse twinkle
disappear before turning in last
night.
We Law along the cOaling DieP for