The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1918-04-18
ALG|ERS B OY WRITES
INTERESTING LETTER
TELLS Of STORMS At SEA

Edwin PettigrOve, son of Capt. and
Mrs. W. r. PettigrOve. writes of an
exciting experience at sea a few
weeks ago, which reads with cOnsid-
cradle interest. lie enlisted for ser
vice in France the day before war was
! declared We publish herewith eN-
cerpts from the letter follows:
I'VE left France l p. III. ON the AT
ternOon of the - of Feb. in company
OF some ships and some convoy yes
| sells which accompanied us. the con-
vOy then disbanded all hiking at their
| best speed, we being the slowest one
of the bunch just naturally dropped
aStcrn and when evening came along
I'VE could just distinguish the last of
the others disappearing over the hOr-
lion. left all by our lonely, padding
along at 10 knots per hour. Had fine
weather for the first four days out
and then comes a nice little storm
and Oh, my how it did blow, lasted
for three days.
Owing to above condition we were
just like cork on the water, pitched
and tossed around. could not lie down
TO sleep, not unless you strapped your
self in your bunk and even then it
| was a hard job to get to sleep, set
down 10 eat, nothing doing in that
line, stand up and balance your cup
or plate or whatever you had the
best way you could. Coffee was the
only hot thing that we had for il was
impossible to cook anything. Well,
we came out through that one o. X,
weather cleared away. Two days af-
forwards, stiff breeze head on, pretty
big swell running, sighted a vessel in
distress off starboard bow, flying dis
tress signals, hauled over towards her
and found out that he had a loose
wheel, the joke of it was just as we
reached him we broke down; circulat-
ing pump on condenser let go. Wind
and sea increasing, we bobbed around
for six hours. while repairs were be-
ing made, getting underway again at
9 p. m. (This ship had been drifting
around for II days, we being the first
one to pick her up in that length of
time). We radioed into the Azores
for assistance for him and then pro-
ceeded on our way. The next day
ran into another storm and believe
me | was introduced right then and
there to what a regular storm was,
the wind bowling through the rigging
and the old ship doing everything but
turn upside down, night just as dark
as could be, the nearest to our course
was four points off wheel, held over
for 16 solid hours on a stretch. We
certainly did roll some, exactly AZ de-
grees by register; all We could do
was stand by and look on and watch
her roll, and wonder whether the next
wave was going over her or il she
was going to pick herself up. When
she would go down in the trough you
could not see over the top of the
swell and our bridge is 38 feet from
the waters edge. Make Roadway?
Yes, eight-tenths of a knot was the
best we could do. Well, we hung and
fought on for 16 to 10 hours, and then
We were compelled to run before the
gale. The rolling was bad but the
pitching was worse; half the time she
would not pick herself up in time be-
| fore the next one would come right
over. / thought two or three times
the end was near; it is wonderful
what a ship will stand. The next
morning wind had gone down to or
| binary breeze and by noon the sea
had Gained down enough to allow us
to get back on our course; once more
head wind and sea all the way, trav-
| cling some, when you make ~ miles
| in 80 days"
ITO add to our pleasant voyage We
ran short of supplies, only had enough
to run 20 days and we were out ex-
actly q days; water went bad, and
the worst was, no tobacco for 10 days
before reaching port, well we were in
troduced to tea and coffee, the only
thing we had that we could smoke"
| THE first signal that was sent upon
entering the roads was to the flag
ship for 100 sacks of Bull Durham,
we received same and when distribut-
ed one would have thought the ship
on fire, smoke coming from all parts
at one time"