Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-06-20
Rough on the Ship


Conductor and Mrs. j. r. began, for
merly of this city, but now living in
Chicago, have sent to this Office the
following letter from their son Edwin,
who is we'll known here:
Hampton Roads, June 2, 1918.
Dear Mother:
Got back to Norfolk Friday, but this
is my first chance to write. You'll
probably be surprised to learn that
have made by first trip through the
submarine zone and back again. We
left New York May s, conveying a
feet of % merchantmen, escorted
them safely through the danger zone
into the Bay of Biscay, and then left
them and beat it back without catch
ing sight of land We were quite
close in, but it was almost midnight,
and quite stormy, so we couldn't see
anything. The trip was uneventful,
except for a lot of rough weather,
and we didn't see any "subs." | guess
our convoy system has got them
scared for they don't show their heads
very often. Eightee-' of them were
reported by wireless to be in the vi
entity in one day, but ? one showed UP.
A trip like this is quite strain
for we stood very close watches, and
we never got night of uninterrupted
sleep. While passing through the war
md
off, so we were all in. We had two
weeks of rough weather, but [ man
aged to hang on to my grub all the
time. Below decks, where the air was
close I'd get sick and dizzy, but as
soon as | got on deck and in the
breeze I'd feel all right. I've got quite
accustomed to the roll of the ship, be-
cause it's easy to swing with it, but
the pitching gets my goat. I'd go to
take a step, and sometimes the deck
would fall away from me and other
times it would also hit me in the face.
We rolled to an angle of At degrees
from the horizontal, SO you can mag
inc what it was like. Several times
shaved with my bucket of water
dashed to stanchion and hanging on
with one hand while I shaved with the
other. Taking a bath was out of the
question, for enough water wouldn't
days when we had to eat off the deck,
and about half of our mess gear has
been broken. One time [ was sitting
braced against the side of the ship
with plate of prunes and pork sau-
sage, when a big wave hit us and
was thrown clear across the ship. AL
though my fork slipped and took about
an inch of hide off my hand, | hit the
other side with my plate still right
side up.
We reached Hampton Roads on Fri
day morning, coaled ship till at night,
got under way yesterday morning ard
went out about so miles and had tar
get practice. We fired on 5-inch guns,
each crew firing four shots by day
light and four at night. Got back to
Hampton Roads this morning, and in
a little while we have to break out the
coaling gear again. Well take on
about 500 tons and then We'll probably
go back to New York. Will probably
reach there Wednesday or Thursday
Won't write any more now, as
want to get into some dirty clothes
to handle cOaling gear. It's hot as
fury here now. The decks are SO hot
that we can't go barefoot l feel it
pretty much, for up to a few days
ago we were wearing overcoats and
all the sweaters we had
After l get back to New York I'll be
transferred to City Park barracks for
a while, but until [ let you know, my
address will still be the Tacoma
Your loving son,
ED.