Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-02-13
STOOD WATCH UPON
SHIP UNDER ATTACK
BY GERMAN U.B0AT
CORP. RANDALL, OF OTTAWA,
WRITES DIARY OF HIS EEPER-
FENCES FROM AMERICAN CAN
TORMENT TO PORT IN FRANCE

The story of his trip from Fort
Harrison, Ind. to France is told in on
interesting letter from Corp Leslie
Randall and the unique experiences
Of standing watch on his regimentai
transport while torpedo crossed her
bow The submarine disappeared af-
ter firing The shot He says:
Instead of writing a formal or in
formal personal letter to you tonight,
! am going to pound out few lines
about the trip over, as have taken
some notes and | will try TO doci
pher them now if can don't eX-
pect to get it al done tonight, but
there are other nights coming and
with a li:tle patience think can get
it ali down and it will be nlce to Aave
in the years to come
! we left Fort Harrison at f:45
/ p. M. Dec 81, 1917, on Monday. We
went in two sections, on the first sec
ticn was supply train 1913 and 404,
and on the second section was eyac-
lation hospital No 2. and our train
! i05. We had our first travelling mess
ut about O'Clock, and it was pretty
poor Bread and corn willy
I Company 320 drew the poorest car
in the train. It was just tourist car
Some OF the other companies had
regular Pulmans Stone and | had
a lower together and we sept pretty
welt. when we woke up, we were
stopped in Buffalo, n. y We laid
here in Buffalo for about six or seven
hours. We bought milk, cookies, etc.
from some stores close 20 the rail
road as we were pretty hungry
Finally we left Buffalo about three
O'CLOCK +. NJ, and started Oh east
We went thru Rochester and Utica
ana kept going east. Some of us hac
maps and we could tell shat We were
on our way east but no one knew
where we were going. Time changcc
i, one hour We got out OF the tran
for an hour at Rochester, and took
! title exercise We rode all afternoon
ana night and when we woke up mex
morning about $50 lJan y we wer'
stopped, and. looking out the win
d9y. we saw that we werein Dumont
n. J.
"Wo unloaded here and marche
, about mile to a fine camp Whlc
). we discovered was Camp Merritt
is between Dumont, n J., and Ten;
., fly. n. y. about Il mile from eacl
@ It is u large concentration camp ab'u
fifteen miles from New York City an
, about twelve miles from Hoboken, s
q We had it all doped out that we wel
s about to embark "a HobOken. II is
n fine camp. Iron, spring beds, tw
story barracks better than we had
i Fort Ben. II was quite little belo
d zero when we arrived here and SUI
was scme cold On Thursday, Jan.
v we were given passes to New fol
IL City from 10 10 p. m. Fritz ana
C. went down and although we dtdi
have time to see much we procured
n real feed and saw Broadway, and al
le rode in the tubes.
of Next morning tJan ~ we n
ri some rumors Of moving. we we're
e. sued heavy driving caps and glow
ne and two more pairs OF shoes, gre
heavy hobnailed field shoes. At mig
re we went in to DumOnt and boua
de some stamps, tobacco, physlc, g
nd On Jan. we received orders to mo
OIL at 7 a. m next morning, and
raj seemed to be getting set for a 10
en- trip. ] had quite a headache tonig
ng We arose az o'clock (Jan 81, ma
Our packs and boarded the train
Ith Dumont Tor, We supposed, ii0'}oii
he After we had ridden several hours
knew we were wrong, and we Il
going and going up the Hudson
finally to Albany Here we shift
OPP and went east, straight, and rode
ate afternoon and night until ll:30 a.
'ac- next day tJan. y. By inquiry II
nee