The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1918-04-17
LOCAL OFFICER GUARDS
TRANSPORT ON ITS TRIP
ACROSS T0FRENCH PORT
Lieut. Sam keesler, Jr., Sighted What Was
Thought To Have Been Either Perisc0pe Of
Sub or Piece of Wood and Guns Fired at 1t
Trip Over is Guarded by Destroyers.

Lieut.. S. r. Keesler, Jr,, has writ
ten home after landing in France and
his description of the trip over and
Ihow the transports are protected and
the manner in which the American
boys look upon this journey, is so or
Iiginal and SO interesting that The
Daily Commonwealth is reprinting the,
same herewith. Lieut.. Keesler is an
aero observer and is now in France
with the American EXpeditionary
Forces.
His letter follows:
Very Close to Somewhere at Sea,
March 20, l9l8-Dearest Mother;
Tomorrow night we will have been
out here in "Neptune's Playground"
one week exactly.
/ understand that we won't get to.
our destination until about Tuesday,
Gee, but | am getting tired of this
everlasting up and down and side to
side motion Of the ship; and it seems
as if you are in the same place all
the time and have made no progress,
for the scenery is always the same,
you know, except at times we see it in
different lights.
We have passed a few vessels at
distance.
am not allowed to tell you the
number Of transports, number of men
on each, and etc.
Have Regular Leave
The Ship Drills"
We have just had Leave the Ship
Drill" We have it every day. Ey-
cry man is assigned to boat or raft
Of certain number These drills, Of
course, are to get the men accustomed
to getting their places quickly and or
derby.
am on raft nine. There are about
seventy-five others on nine besides
my self. Some of these nights we
will probably have this drill at night;
understand that we are to sleep in
our clothes tonight for the first time.
All Of the observers" on board
were given jobs right away as "look-
outs" in the crows nest" | go up in
the foretop." There are five lieuten-
ants for the "foretop" and five for the
"maintop." There arc two other men
detailed with each lieutenant which
puts three men in the "fore-top" and
three in the "maintop." We start at
a. m. and end at p. m. Each shift
Is on duty two hours at time. Get
ting up to the "foretop" is no small
matter. Although there is nothing
hard about it, still it requires some
nerve, for the "crow's nest' is about
seventy feet from deck, and when the
wind is blowing hard the mast sways
back and forth causing rather a ner-
vous feeling. Several of the men
turned back after being about half
way up. It's q good job though
plenty Of fresh air and good chance
for excitement !
One Death on Ship
Seasickness--that muchly talked of
horror, has been encountered and |
/ can truthfully say "veni-vidi-vinei.'
The second day out just before din
ner, | met my Waterloo. Since then
1 have never felt better.
One of the ships has some Red
Cross nurses on board. | don't know
which one, but wish they were on
ours.
There has been one death on board
among the men, (spinal meningitis
hope that we don't get quarantined
when we reach port. The men are
mostly "casuals" who were IN
ouaranteen when their units went ov-
er.
Gun Crews Fire Real Shells.
This ship is heavily armed with
four six-inch guns-two forward ana
two aft. The gun crews practice eV-
cry morning manipulating them. EV-
ery passing boat is used as a target
Tor sighting practice. r
One of the boats fired some real
shells the other day. We could see
the projectiles skipping over the wa
| ter.
Lights 20 our at 7 o'clock. 1t is
very disagreeable to go around In the
ldark.
Last night we had moving picture
show given by the Y. M. G, A. man.
1t was splendid and featured VIM. s'
Hart in one of his pictures.
The Y. M. C. A. has helped make
Things pleasant for the men in every
way possible; books, victrola, organs,
Ipitcure shows and etc. They send
Imam with each transport.
Followed by Torpedo Destroyers.
Today | have enjoyed watching the
ships use their different methods OF
signaling. They use flag wigwag and
Iblinkers--one or the other continuous
Ily. We have had good time all day,
watching our convoy work. We pick
ed it I'D this morning at 8 ociock
i Now we have whole. fieet OF torpedo
lboat destroyers all about US.
i You should see them darting here
and there, some ahead, some behind,
acme on tho sides. All Of them paint
| ed curious colors. Looks like an Eas-
ter egg hunt. Our other convoy af-
ter turning over her charge left us
and was out of sight in half an hour.
/ hated to see her 90, for she had
, Ibeen so faithful on this voyage and
had taken such good care Of US.
These little destroyers are certain
Nv diligent. They zig-zag all about
us ali the time. 1t doesn't seem pos
sip;s $sy q wheat 70 sH s~aS, o.