Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-04-11

well ! don't care if she does go down,
but | pray to God she lies still when
she hits the bottom" A huge joke,
wasn't it? But no one laughed, for
he meant what he said. And besides,
no one felt like laughing
When at sea we get no water ex-
cept for drinking purposes. Can't
shave except on very calm days. Can't
light a fire ito cook any thing OF
course that isn't bad, but when one
is soaked, even the bedding. it is too
rough to stay in your hunks at best
When you are thrown from one side
to the other until one is black and
blue, then one is appt to feel a bit
discoura ged. When it lasts for
week or SO.
You understand now that we were
in the war zone and not p light was
allowed any where on the ship. Think
if you can, of trying to stand an en-
CINE room watch, matches holted down,
deck thicb1y covered with oil, air so
full OF gaSsy smoke as to burn ones
throat and eyes, not light. and the
wall a mighty roar and s. crash of
machinery, and then, to make things
worse, being thrown against hot en-
gineS, greasy decks. and shaken up in
general. and you will agree with a
poor engineer, that life is not an
empty dream Of course. am not
serious. and | am not complaining, for
the boys in the trenches have it much
worse than we do.
Our next stop was Texiaes, Port
ugal. Our next sEisbon Portugal. \Aft-
| er staying there a few days we started
| for Gibraltar. We arrived at Gibraltar
/ November 20. We dried all our be-
| longings, shaved and cleaned up in
! general, took on gas and supplies. and
went out next morning for the British
cruiser Britannia had been sunk dur
| ing the night. Three of our boats
| formed a division, and we were &C
connpanfed by several destroyers.
| The next we received word by radio
| that a fleet of u boats, were going to
! try and get through the Straits Of
| Gibraltar, from the Mediterranean
| out to the Atlantic. About ten a. m
i the fun started We dropped over
/ seven depth charges and the tell tale
oil came to the surface. so ] guess oui
boat settled one Hun U-boat. 1t is >es-
timated that about twelve subs were
| sunk by chasers and destroyers from
ten a. m. that day until 4 p. m. the
next day We We're mistaken for SUI
| by a Bfizilfian cruiser and they open
| ed fire at 600 yards. Owing to heavy
sea running and fog and possibly
poor craftsmanship, we were not hit
We returned the next day and were
| then sent to Brest, France.
Arrived at Brest the next day aftei
! the armistice was signed. We stayed
| there for two weeks then we got or
| ders to go back to dear old U. S. A
| We all stuck up our homeward bound
pennants. Our pennant is 81 fee
long, 2 feet to each man.
Due to the frequent Instructions a
various islands of the West Indies
particularly Santa Domingo, thes
chasers no doubt will, be distributed
to these islands to reinforce the ma
rines.
We expect to complete our home
ward bound journey as soon as W
leave.
was only over long enough to ge
a little taste of warfare, and that o.
a small scale, SO of course this will b
tame in comparison to the luckier one
who were on the battlefield of France
However, it may prove interesting a
it differs from most experiences o
those who have bppO across