The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1920-04-22
EDWARD GERARD
WRITESLETTER
At Sea, S. S. Bellbuckle,
March 13, 1920.

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At Sea, S. S. Bellbuckle,
| March 13, 1920.
dear Mother and Sisters:
i 1t has been long time since we
have heard from each other and sup
pose you have been little worried at
not hearing from me sooner. have
often wondered how you were and
hope that you are we'll. I am feeling
fine and am anxious to return to good
old y. 5. A. Am going to give you a
little story of our trip since leaving
Sydney, Australia.
We left Sydney January 21st, after
stay of ten days. Right away we
ran into a heavy southeast gale, and
as we were lightly loaded the ship
rolled and pitched great deal.
| We arrived off New Caledonia early
in the morning Of the twenty-sixth in
a dense fog. There are coral reefs
all around the island and we had to
wait for pilot to take us into Nou-
mea. We got into Noumea about one
p. m. and had medical examination
and customs inpection. Noumea is
the largest place in New Caledonia and
has a population of two or three
thousand. We left Noumea about
| four p. m. with a coast pilot and pro-
ceeded to Paagoumene, about one
hundred and eighty miles distant.
We arrived at Paagoumene in the
morning and anchored about a mile
from the shore. There are no docks
! there so the ore was brought out in
barges. It was very hot during our
stay. l was ashore twice in Paagou-
fn 1;$k1n L.
ing. 1t isn't town at all, only a few
huts and no streets, just foot-paths. If
you can imagine a South Sea Island
village-this was one. Thatched ma
tive nuts, curving sandy beach, palm
trees and natives like you read about
and see in pictures. OF course there
are white people here but only few.
The island belongs to France, and the
white people are, mostly French con-
victs. There is one Englishnan that
has charge of the mine.
The mine is several miles from the
beach up high steep hill and the ore
is brought in by galloway. l didn't
see the mine as it was too hot for me
;; to walk that far. 1t is reddish color
ed heavy ore looking like crushed
rock. 1t is called chrome ore and is
used in high grade steel manufacture.
The mine and loading work is done by
Japanese coolies and believe me they
work harder and do more work than
! anyone | ever saw in my life and
/ about all they eat is rice. Of course
more work they do the more money
they get. / don't see how they can
stand it. don't think a white man
could. A few of the native blacks do
a little work, although they are almost
perfect physical specimens I don't
suppose you ever saw a red-header
negro. Well, here they dye their hair
red and are in the height Of fashion.
l suppose you have been looking for
New Caledonia on the map. It is
about midway between the Fiji Is
lands and Brisbane, Australia. We
left there on February sixth for the
long trip to Panama loaded to full
capacity with seven thousand tons of
ore and about sixteen hundred tons
of general cargo.
The weather was fine when we left
and continued so the whole trip. The
trip was without incident and every
day was the same. A few games of
card. little checkers, three meals.
reading, little gossip and watches.
About six hundred miles south of the
island of Tahiti we saw an enormous
water spout. A few day later we
passed Pitcairn Island. These two OBJ
jects were the only things that varied
the monotony of the whole journey.
We didn't see a ship until two days
from Panama. The nearest one by
wireless was the S. S. Port Pirie about
five hundred miles distant. Near Bal
boa we passed school of whales, flf-
teen or twenty. Some of them were
fifty or sixty feet long. We passed
within twenty feet of two of them.
We anchored off the Pacific entrance
near Balboa about one p. m. on
March Z. It was too late that day to-
go through the canal so we had to
wait until the next mornisg. We en-
tered the canal about eight a. m. l
suppose you have read about a small
slide at Culebra Cut. We had to an
Choir in the canal near the cut from
about ten until two o'clock while the
dredees worked. The slide is small
one and only delays traffic little. The
dredees will not get out of the way:
until all the ships are anchored near
the slide and they then move our OF
Cno WAY anu lCC (HOAl pooo'
We docked at the fuel dock at Gus.
tobal at eight p. m. and took on stores
and, fuel. Il was going to say before
that the trip from Paagounene to
Panama took little better than thirty
one days. We had two days OF the
same date when we passed the hun
dredth eightieth meridian which
makes up for the extra day. we left
Cristobal at four a. m. the next morn
ing, the ninth and struck bad weather
for three days. Yesterday was flne
and we passed between Cuba and
Haiti. We came very close to Cuba
but could not see Haiti. As I am
writing we are passing about ten
miles east of the island Of San Saliva
dor, the place where Columbus first
landed. The weather is very hot as
we are in the gulf stream. Am won,
dering how the northern climate VIII
effect me. We expect to land at Bal
timore Wednesday to discharge ore