Norwich bulletin., 1919-05-13

After the contest over water com
 missioner had been settled the meet
 ing adjourned at s.20 o'clock. WENT TO RUSSIA ON
 SCOUT CRUISER CHESTER
 John ". timer, who is in the navy on the U. s. $. scout cruiser Chester which has been to kola, Russia, on convoy duty. has just written an in- teresting letter to his father, Henry F. Ulmer giving the details of the trip. The ship is now back at New York, havii1g reached there May 7.-
 The letter follows: e U. $. Chester.
 Care Postmaster, New York City. Euroute From HarHich. England, to Kolz. Russia.
 April i. 1919. Ny Dear Father:
 Prepared all forenoon for sea and at , p. m. took on board t20 soldiers and 21 officers, lieutenant- colonel being in charge. All night supplies. am intuition, food and three automobiles were loaded. All of these soldiers are from the German front and they have volunteered for this duty in Russia. They sure are big fellows and our men took to them right away.
 April 2 ,1s1s At 9.5o the U. s. S. Galveston having the s. Q. F. {senior officer present. aboard, steamed out Of Harwich haf- Dor and we started at 10 a. m. after , her. Iii the morning 1t was announced that we would make 8 landing party on arrival and volunteers we called for. 1 put my name in and so did nearly everyone if1 our department Our speed is F knots as the Galveston can't go much faster. At noon we had 1 abandoned ship drill so as to make sure that the soldiers knew where their stations were. At D. m. we had landing party muster and all new sta ; tior1s were assigned. I drew an awful one, in charge of the after 5-inch gun ! to be used for covering the landing party with heavy fire. In case of a pioneer party I go ashore and take charge of the power plant with some 1 of the gang. It is great weather. with
 temperature about S5 degrees above ! zero. I stood the sunset to D. m. searcl1ligi1t watch. Always up to this 1 trip have had $ two or four hour watch with about one night in out of four. Now I have every other night in. I eat and live in the C. P. O. duar- i ters and although the mess bill is SIG i (4a sllillings)- Q month. it is worth it 1 as tho crews chow is awful. 1 ~...- April 3. 1919.
 l Passing the northern end of Scot land this morning and it is getting
 quite cold with snow in squalls every
 two or three hours. We are rolling
 about 20 degrees and small num-
 i Der Of. the doughboys are getting sick
 Gun drili and loading drill took up . T couple of hours Of the afternoon while
 ia the morning i've had general duar- :i ters, fire and abandon ship. We arc
 making about Is knots now as the
 ' running. sea astern of us is pushins i about three knots more than we're ! turning over. Two of the sergeants sleep i'll the dyna1no room and they
 | have been telling us about the from I in France.
 i April {. 1919. | Passed the Shetland Islands during ! the morning and ran into a real nortl ] gale. Rolling and pitching to beat tho
 band and nearly the whole army is sick. Had all our drills just as if wt
 were at anchor and when those dough.
 boys came to the topside at abandon :, ship they were 8 sight. Sunset wa. not until 10 D. m. with only thret l hours Of darkness so we had III seafchligft watches.
 ] April 5, 1s19
 | Passed the 65th latitude before nool , and the thermometer reads around 2 degrees most Of the time Snow il
 great quantities every little while ant , we seem to be hitting every high ant low spot on the ocean. We expect [,
 enter the Arctic Circle tonight and W , will only have one hour of darknes from now on.
 April s. 1919. | Gained down a little bit and th , therfneSnetei reads 10 above we ar . in the circle and today have passed 1 ieebefgs. Believe me. they are som
 sight, white as can be and for sig , they looked like the Woolwertn build . ing. It is very stormy with dry sno1 , coming head on in regular blizzar il style. The spray has frozen on tn i. rigging and guns and in s Short wllil s everything will be white We are dii Il to pass Hanafnerfofd, the most north
 efia commercial town in the world Uni sl aftefneon, but we are about 100 mile north of it. Our position at noon wa :. on the Iand latitude or about 100 ;. miles from tie North Pole.
 April ', 1s1s r Still rolling aieng at 1s knots an
 today we cruised in close to the Rus T sion coast. The eoast-line is yer :, noHftaifious and covered completel : W1tn SHOW difd- Ice 50 tnaL It lOQk : like one big and endless iceberg. " < passed By A great many seals both . the water and floating around on mir ' iature bergs. We avoid the iceberg s because about seven -sights as mue < ics is Below water as there is ,visibl : April s, 1919. si Went somewhat Of a nerthWaf 2 course all morning and turned areuIi
 ana headed south sheftly after noe ! Why, I don't know. About D. ! we entered tile baY at the head { 2 which is Mefnlafsk, Eola being q fe c miles inland. .The Bay was full of i, : and as the Galvester was. ,beacaiT q they had to break the ice. We pasge . a sleigh with two pagssngefs VI
 were on the ice a few ll,indred feet : of our port beam. The feature of th y was that the sleigh vas drawn by ,t pair of reindeer and it sure Was son 7 sight several tugs came down u $ bay and met us. Off of one we took
 pilot and an American colonel. At F o'elocR we anchored at MefTna ansK .ji -- astern Of the II. M. s. Glory. 8 Sri E fish baltlesilip. OdT boats We iiat 2 ready immediately for a. landing pal a ty, but after one boat Hit tie beat ! and wasn't if1elested the affair "; ,. called off. The U. $. S. .Yahkto t which the last time was With Us . Gibraltar. is here also,
 MHrfnansk is a small town. most
 French. English and U. s. troops no = built in 1917. There are nothing b
 lot of shacss and railroad cars. Ei