Putnam patriot., 1920-07-09
DEAR MARJoRY:

is written by William Rafferty, to ms
people, and it tells Of the cruise he Is
taking with the midshipmen Of An
napolis. He is certainly having won
derful adventure And while there is
a lot Of hard work involved there IS
much pleasure too, as is shown BY the
COPY Of the "Star and Herald" pa
per published in Panama, that VII
liam" sent home. In it are told the
plans for entertaining and welcoming
the middies Of the Canal Zone, ball
game. minstrel show, dance, wa
ter polo game, swimming contests, div
ing exhibitions and other aquatic
sports. ANOTHER thing Of interest was
to be real Spanish bull fight in which
two bulls were TO be fought and
killed by expert Spanish bull fighters.
This big program was arranged by the
4 rrny and Navy Y. VI. c. A. at Pana-
ma The headline says, Pacific Side
A iready to Fete Middies," and the ar
ticle ends by saying that those IN
charge Of the plans are going the linn
it to make the day a success in order
that the midshipmen might carry away
with them fond remembrance of
Panama and the people living there.
But this IS what Midshipman Rafferty,
has TO say:
South of Cuba, June 10th
For Gnce in my life feel that if ]
was given the time | could write
book on what has happened since last
Friday afternoon. Although | have
lots to tell you, its 50 hot that my
hand sticks to the paper, and every
few seconds have to mop my brow"
although we are in the middle of the
caribbean Sea and good breeze is
blowing.
Il seems queer to think that am
SO far south and it is noticeable in
two or three different ways. In the
first place the sun is 50 much brighter
and we're directly under it 8; then the
heat is certainly with Us; and lastly, !
never saw such water in all my life
1t is the clearest, beautiful dark blue
imaginable | suppose that my ex-
perienees will be more interesting if !
tell them in chronological order.
Well Friday afternoon IN fine
ranstorm we went on board the sub
chasers at the Academy and were tax
en- out to our respective ships. got
on board at o'clock and we caused
some confusion all at once. with all
our wet baggage and ourselves just
as wet We were given our billet
slips" which tells US where we eat,
sleep, etc. After supper we started to
swing our hammocks for good
nights sleep and at the same time we
were told when and where we were
to 90 on watch. and | was one of the
few who got the one watch that we all
dreaded the fire roomi
had TO 20 on that night from ! 2 TO
4 and doubt if ever worked harded.
You cant beat heaving and passing
coal in an atmosphere of 1870 degrees
for making muscle and taking off fat.
That and sleeping is all that ! have
done for the last five days and ] fin
ished my watch in the fire room this
morning with watch from 4 until 8
o'clock | now go on duty in the dy-
namo room, which is heaven in com
parison and now of course my spirits
are much better.
had a pleasant surprise when
came aboard TO find three fellows
from Cornell, all of them were in my
class and | knew two of them very
well. You see they were also in the
naval unit at Ithaca where l was and
as they were placed in the Reserves
after the war they were given a
chance to make this cruise if they so
desired. expect l will make my lib
critics ashore with them.
As for excitement, SO far we have
had none to speak of. We have only
passed three or four ships because
coming down from the coast we have
been out from the coast about 100
miles. We came in sight of land last
night, first time since leaving Chesa-
peake Bay. 1t was Cuba and although
we were many miles from it. IT looked
inviting. We passed between Cuba
and Haiti by what is called the Wind
ward Passage Now we are out of
sight of land again, due to reach Col
on Saturday morning about 4 o'clock,
and we are about five hundred miles
away Although we are only going to
be in the Canal Zone for about three
days we are hoping to get few hours
of liberty at Panama City, Just before
setting out on the long stretch. As for
living conditions, of course were a
bit crowded The drinking water Is
the one trouble For the first three
days it was hot and salty. Il finally
cleared up and is much better now.
Although I've done real strenuous la
bor since coming aboard, feel fine
and with this open air life expect to
be in good physical trim when l see
veu once again IN September.
Here's the next letter on the list,
this time from Pomfret. so you see
Putnam folks aren't the only ones who
know me now,
Pomfret, June sth, 1920.
My Dear Patty
have just arrived for the summer
and am SO glad to be once more among
these beautiful hills, almost within
hearing of CarriH Falls