The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-07-10
NAVY BOY TELLS
Of LIFE At SEA
LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE FULL
OF ALL KINDS OF DIFFER
EMIT SCENES
saw THE GERMANS SINK THEIR BIG FLEET
Pleased To Have the Ships Disposed
OF Rather Than Go Into the Hands
OF Some Other Nation.

A letter received by W. r. Vinegar
from his son. Claude, tells of the life
of our navy in British waters. This
is very interesting reading and the
Register is glad to present it to our
readers.
U. S. S. Black Hawk,
June "a, 1919.
Dear Father: Received your well
come letter last night and am going
to answer it now before forget it.
l just returned from the mine field
last night; was out there for six
days on little old peanut shell.
really believe she would roll in the
middle of the Sahara desert. never
~ meal though and came back
r.. Just as good condition as | left in
Was just aboard her for that one trip,
am back at my old place on the Black
Hawk now. Have the to II watch
today and there is not much doing
in the forenoon, SO / am taking some
of the time to write this.
Well, sure hope to be starting
back soon now. Time is getting short
er every day. l sure hope you are
still in New York when ] get there.
am not sure whether | will land in
Boston or New York; doesn't matter
though, if you are there / will, man.
age to see you. When you gettnere
drop ME line in care OF the Naval
Y. M. c. A, Sand street, Brooklyn,
letting me know where you are STOP
ping and | will sure look you up. /
am sure to be there by September
and any mail addressed to me at the
above place will be held until call
for it.
The time is beginning to drag lit
tie now and the more moving around
do the better like it, and the faster
the time passes. / am kind of up
in the air as to what to do, whether
to quit the navy or not. | sure want
to, but before l do | must have some
thing in sight. Can't take the chance
of leaving and then not finding work
That is the biggest reason why
would like to get back to the United
States a little ahead of time.
Well, l guess it will work out al
right in time, but could use little
advice to good advantage.
You probably know about the Ger
man feet scuttling themselves. They
weer only about three miles from
w luin inc ln
island. 1t sure was good joke on
the "Limies," and it will likely be
the saving of lot of arguing and
trouble. Myself would rather see
them at the bottom of the sea than
have the English get them. And be-
lieve me, they were figuring on get
ting them, too. Now their hearts are
just. about broken. | wish that just
the day before there had been an
agreement signed whereby the United
Stctes was to take all the merchant
ships and the British all the war ships,
and then have the Germans sink them
selves. Say, but that would just about
crushed the limi-jicers. Well, anyway,
the Heine's slipped one over on them
Had letter from Richard some
time ago and he seemed to be faring
pretty well. l sent him my camera
and bunch of films so he could get
some good pictures. They are living
in private houses there and he said
he was rooming with a photographer
from Philadelphia. So l think be-
tween them. they should turn out some
good views. | certainly never want
to see or hear of any Scottish scenery
when / get back to the United States
have had sufficient.
Well, / must close this now and
get busy. Must copy a little press
some time this morning and might as
well start in Hope to hear from you
again soon, also hope to be New York
bound very soon. So, until later, |
am as ever, with best wishes and love
to all. Claude.