Evening journal., 1918-12-10

The spectacular surrender OF the Ger
man war ships TO the Allied fleets was
witnessed by a Wilmington boy, Walter
p. Early, the son OF Mrs. Mary A. Early,
No. no NoSth Connell street.
"Wock" Early. as he is better known
to his friends. held the bantamweight
title Of Delaware. lighting under the
name Of Johnny Conlon." He has also
held the bantamweight championship
OF Uncle Sans Atlantic fleet. He has
his championship belt at home to re-
mind him Of the days he has spent In
Unole Sans navy. He writes, in
/ letter home
Mother. / could not tell you much
in my other letters Of what WI go
ng on In the navy. but now II IS DIFF
! ferent because they have stopped
censurlng our letters. | guess you
people think that the navy didn't do
much in the war because everything
was kept quiet, but you cannot tell
me anything about the navy over here.
mean the 1--WE dreadn0ughts that are
here. The New York. Arkansas. Wy
Oming. Florida and the good ship Texas
certainly did their part in winning this
war. When we came over here the
English knew that our ships were the
best Uncle sam had, so they named us
the Grand Fleet.
They have two bases here. one at
Scapa Flow, that is up in Scotland. and
the other one Is at Rosyth. You can see
it 10. your geography, and you can tell
Just where / am at. Well, IIother,
our ships certainly did open their eyes.
We weren't over here two days before
we were ordered out at sea about
a. m, because they had sighted some
German ships. We went after them
in good style. We chased them for
about six hours, but they were too
yellow, and beat it back TO their own
base.
ION our way back we ran into sub
marines, and It was some lively time
for awhile. The Florida Just missed
being hit by about twenty feet, but
we BOT busy with our torpedo boats,
and sunk most OF the German subs
with depth bombs. / was certainly
scared that night, but we got used TO
Il later on. and we would go out TO
look for trouble, it seemed like going
to a show. didn't mind II at ALL We
had to work all day and stand watch
most OF the night, which was pretty
hard to stand for nine months.
1.-The next great thing we did was
to convoy one OF the largest fleet OF
boats that was ever conveyed from |
Norway. We went down the coast with |
them without having any casualties. !
That was one Of the greatest stunts !
pulled off In this war. Another great |
stunt the navy did was up in the |
Skagerack. That Is the entrance 10 the |
Baltic Sea. The English had tried to
mine that place for three years, and |
every time they would try il IN Ger |
mans would make them retreat.
"Our five ships, a couple OF mine lay |
ers and a few torpedo boats-and you |
might think IL buil-but the u. S. |
ships laid more mines than any ship |
King George had. We laid three |
thousand mines in six hours, and that |
Is going sOme After we had done /
that. the German navy was done. We |
tired TO coax them out and we even |
went within 100 miles OF their base /
and challenged them, but they didn't |
want any part OF us.
well, mother, II | tried 10 tell you
everything that has happened since |.
have been over here | would use all |
OF my paper, so ] viii walt and tell
you all when ! get home. | am writ
ing this letter on the day the German
fleet was surrendering. Il certainly was
a beautiful sight TO see all the battle
ships OF England, France and the
United States going out to sea 10 meet |
them. IL was on the morning Of the |
2ist at 3 a. m. We got under way. |
and sighted the German feet about $50 |
a. m. Everybody was at his battle
station because we weren't going to
get tricked by them, but they came Il
across without a shot being fired. II 4
was great. / am certainly glad ! was |
here to see a sight Will never forget
have just told you about one-third |
Of what was going on, so you can see
that we are doing our bit. Well, mother. II
is everything o. X. at homer | expect
TO be home next month or maybe II
sooner.
| guess when this letter reaches you
the war will be over forever. | won't
be sorry, because war is hell, and |
have seen some awful sights in my
nine months over there; men with legs
and. arms on and gassed, and every
thing YOU could think OF Is the "flu"
over yet? II is over aboard ship. We
all had 10 wear masks on board ship
and IL was fierce, but you know all
about that "flu." had. in fact every
body on board ship had a touch Of It,
but IL was lucky no one died from It.
II guess / will bring this letter TO
IN end, hoping to hear from you and
'ather and all the family soon.
II remain. your fighting sailor boy.
''WOCK."