The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1919-01-17

Mr.. and Mrs. Howard B. Stitely, OF
Hagerstown, Md, formerly Of this
county received the following interest
ing letter from their son, e. %. Stitely,
who is in France. The letter de-
scribes in detail the trip across the
ocean, submarine attack On the troop
ships and the fighting in France. Mr..
Stitely is the grandson OK Mr.. and
Mrs. Ephraim J. Yingling, Union
Mills. The letter follows - s5.t s5;...g.1
Chaumont, France,
Sunday, Nov "a, 1918.
Dear Dad
Have just been. informed that the
Censor, as we call it, has removed his
green whiskers, therefore, will be
able to tell some history.
1--WE boarded the Steamship Themis-
tocles, which is an English boat of
IL 900 tons, at Pier 81, New York City,
10 a. M, ON Monday morning, July
Is, being assigned to ffrst-class berths,
and after loading UP with Motor Macs,
Signal Corps and Casuals, we steamed
,wly out Of the harbor about A p. m
same day, people cheering, waving
flags and all that stuff. took a long
lasting look at the old Statue OF Lib
erty, not knowing If 7 should ever
gaze upon her any more or not.
Our ship was manned by an Eng
lish crew, having speed OF about 10
knots at her best, and equipped with
"a AT" gun on the stern We were
assigned three to one state-room, and
fixed up tres bon. As we got out OF
the harbor, we were accompanied by
"a tdirigible balloon and couple air.
planes overhead also three submarine
asers, which, however, all left ms
towards evening, turning back, and We
hit it alone to, they told us, Nova Scotia
first The sea was smooth, and We
enjoyed it very much, travelling with
ont lights at night, not even being al-
lowed to- smoke, for the light from
even a cigarette could be detected =
great distance, the crew told us, and
the ferries" were all along the east
.ern coast at that time.
About Wednesday, we first saw
land, and found out we we're going to
anchor i'm the harbor Of Halifax, Nova
Scotia, and it is a wonderful harbor
too, there being about so ships anch-
OrHd therein. In the entrance to the
harhor, we saw a Red Cross ship half
sAnken near the shore, the stern just
sticking nearly straight up In the air
out of the water like 1t took a dive.
This ship was driven against the rocks
in a storm. We also saw some or the
ruins which was caused by the T. & T..
explosion there sometime ago. About
the first thing we distinguished on
land was Ford car going I'D hill.
There was also a U. >. battleship in
the harbor. -~E+
Ny. We layed up there for two days,
and one afternoon pulled up anchor
and started out of the -harbor, 81 other
ships doing the same. They all got
into formation, just the same as
horse race, stretching oHt about TO in-
each line. Our ship was ON the left
end, first line We didn't like chat at
AT either.
1--WE were escorted out about 30
miles by submarine chasers, and soon
found out that the three stacker trav-
cling with us, was a good old welcome
u :. Cruiser. You know, they are
aN camouflaged, and IT Is impossible
to tell just what they are. We travel
ed in q zig-zag course the whole way
across, going north and south, one day
passing ice-bergs which indicated that,
W. were I'D north and a few days
later, Il being quite warm, indicating
that we were going south.
"I remember we passed two Whcpper
lce-bergs. They just looked like big
We travelled III fog fcr
several days, loosing some of the ships
and the cruiser would hunt around
sometimes taking two days to find
them; but we usually kept we'll &C.
gether By whistle signals-and those
Man + will hear them all
ny life They make your bones tingle.
Well, 4 forgot To- tell you, We had
70 wear our life belts all the time, eat
ng-it was hard job TO shovel over
hose BIZ collars too, and sleeping
With them on or within reach. Six
short blasts Of the whistle was the
signal to get w our life boats. W.