Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-12-20
LETTER FROM VAL YATES
Queenstown, Ireland,
November 28th, 1918

received today the first lot of mail
have had since have been on this
side and among it were copies of all
the Beacons since l left New York on
September 18th, so you can imagine
about how / feel onight. notice in
several of the Beacons letters from
a number of the boys over here, and
form different army camps in the
states, so thought I'd tell you little
about my trip across and what we are
doing, as it is little different from
the experiences If the other boys.
We got in yesterday from five days
crews, and the first news we heard
was that the censorship had been lift
ed, and you never heard such yell
ing and carrying on in all your life as
the boys did when they found out that
their letters wouldn't have to be cen
sored any more.
I left Newport September 9Th, for
Philadelphia and only stayed there
five days before I was transferred to
the New Yo:X receiving ship at New
York City, where l spent three days
before leaving the good old u. S. A.
They gave us liberty two nights in
New York, and believe me l had some
time as one of the boys in our bunch
lived there and could show us around
over the city. He carried me cut to
supper and after supper got out his
car and took around sightseeing. I
left New York Sept. 14th on the U. S.
S. Culgoa, supply ship, and after
being on the water for II days ar
rived safely in Southampton, Eng.
Wish you could have seen our convoy
the day we pulled out. There were
forty-five ships in all and they were
Ball loaded with supplies for the army
and navy boys on this side. The Cul-
poga had three million dollars worth
!. of sugar, coffe, flour, meat, ETC., on it
land still it was very small ship in
comparison with some of the others
i'm the convoy. We had six destroy
Iers, five sea planes and two balloons
with US the first day we pulled out,
and they stayed with US until we got
passed the danger zone.
Then we had other destroyers, planes
md balloons to meet us about thous-
and miles out Of Southampton, and
1hey succeeded u. xsssing us safely /
Sver the war zone on this side.
{ After staying at Southampton d |
Week l was transferred to the Naval
Framing barracks here at Queens
town, which is base for Uncle Sans |
bubmarines and submarine dsetroyers |
About two days later was placed on
one of the destroyers, the Rowan"
Ind am still with her.. We have had
lots of fun chasing the German subs.
around in the Irish sea and tn Eng
lish channel, but ! guess all our fun
lis over now as Germany has called in
all of her sea-pirates, and most of our
suds. are anchored here in the harbor.
They are peculiar looking things and
Il is very interesting to go through
bne and see how it operates.
y I don't know how many subs. there
are here, but we have 25 destroyers
and about fifty or more submarine
Iehasers. Our work consists mostly
|of convoy buty. About five or six of
the destrcyers 50 out after convoy
at time and convoy it through the
war zone in to what ever port it is
bound for and then we return to our
[base here at Queenstown. I've had
some awful nice trips and seen lots of
the world since I've been over here, as
|we take in all the English, IRISH and
French ports. was in Liverpool last
week, London week before last, and
have made several trips to Brest,
France. l don't think, though, we
-e getting anything we don't deserve
,r the destroyer life is a miserable
inc while out at sea, and that's where
we spend most of our time.
l noticed in one of the papers to-
hight letter from Davis st. John,
and was amused at what he said about
how the transport rocked. He said it
he came over on rocked. He said it
I'rocked like tomato can on the wa
Eer." Well, if he could make just one
"trip out at sea on a destroyer, he
IFould think that transport rode like
Pullman car on the M. & o. All we
fo is rock. At times / hav seen the
Rowan go clear out of sight under
katr just as though we were a big
fish. We don't dare do any work at
lea or we would lose half our crew I
ver-board. One can hardly eat and
sleep, much less work. When meal
1ime comes we all get bowl and 90
Elp to the kitchen Tor galley as we
all it, get our rations and then sit on :
he deck to eat. We don't dare cot ,