Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1919-06-05
INTERESTING LETTER
FROM EARL DUSTIN
No. a Hampton Court,

y
suppose you have received my tele-
gram that was in the states some
time ago, haven't you and have
been expecting a letter before this.
Am very sorry to have kept you
waiting, but believe me | haven't
had much time to do anything out
side of finishing up my work from
my overseas cruise and get started
on the advanced course.
arrived in New York May End
and was detached from the ship on
May 3rd. 1t was then too late in
the afternoon to report at South
and Whitehall so we 1.-THE fellow |
was with and am rooming with now
had to report Monday morning.
They were thru with us there lit
tie after noon and we reported in
at Stevens about 2 o'clock. We
were too late to start in with that
Mondays class but the lieutenant
said if we would make up the work
it would be alright to start in with
them Tuesday, so we went to class
today or rather went to the below
en- Turbine shops and found out
that the work was easy and that we
could make up yesterdays work
alright, so we are on the last three
weeks of our work after which we
will receive our commission. 1t GER
tainly seems good to be so near the
end. What will do then / am not
sure but think | will try to get
out of the navy and start in tele-
phone work. Well, so much for
that. Now, | will start telling
about my trip.
We left Boston April Ord in the
finest kind Of weather. We three
Warrants were put on a watch right
away and stood a watch in three.
That means four hours on and eight
hours off. Our work as far as the
watchers were concerned was very
easy. During the first part of the
cruise over we had to repair some
pumps and make other minor re-
pairs such as valves, pipe lines, etc.
and then we had to learn how to
run the throttle and how to inspect
and repair different parts of the
engine. We also had to learn how
operations, such as firing and water
tending were carried out. But our
hardest work was that we had to do
for the school. We were busy near
ly all the time and then had a little
bit to do when we came back. Our
finished work consisted of some
thing like $50 pages Of 8 1-2xl1 10
paper of write-ups and sketches.
When we were about three days out
from Boston quite storm came up
and as bad luck would have it on
the noon of the 9th or the 9TH our
rudder chain came off. We of course
had to stop the engine to fix it and
that ship sure did roll A ship al
ways does roll more when she is at
rest than when she is under motion
and the Canonicus was no excep-
ton. 1t was just at dinner time
and the officers were all in the ward
room for mess. Well, first you were
at one side Of the room jammed
against the wall and next you were
in the middle some place jammed
against the table. The tables were
not fastened down so they slid too.
Soup was a foolish thing to try to
serve in case like that, but never
theless they did it and a full bowl
of soup on the table was reduced to
little more than half before you had
even taken one swallow. The buff
fet drawers came out and spilled
the silverware and the photograph
records on the deck. We had one
more bad day coming back but the
rest Of the trip the weather was
fine. We went over by the north
ern route and when we started we
were going to Brest, but when we
were two or three days out Of Brest
we received wireless to 60 to Bor-
Joo,,x, ;netoad Wa 1oct about fyvr