The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-04-09
Seaman Writes
of Sheep Ships
Voyage t0USSR
Especial to The Daily Worker.)

Mall) AS per my promise am 60
ing to write and tell you about our
trip across. We showed off at 700
p. m. October on Swedish ship
"Hjelmaren" and for ship of $500
tons it was pretty good canoe to
, cross the North Atlantic, especially
at this time of the year. The ship
rolled and see-sawed like a good drunk
on Madison Street, but in the North
Sea where we expected to have real
bad weather, we had just the OPP
posite. The day before we reached
north of Scotland we got news thru
the radio that there was big storm
in the North Sea, but by the time we
got there it was nice and quite and
everything went lovely.
One and a Half Miles Per Hour.
But when we reached the Baltic
that's where the fun began. We ran
into a hurricane that the captain said
he didn't think the Baltic could ever
have 1t rained and sleeted and rolled
and jumped so bad that we thought
that we would lose half of our sheep.
When it came to the count we only
lost one. The decks were under water
all the time and it took all the skill
of a flag pole sitter to cross four feet
from our corridor to the steps of the
hold, besides getting a free salt bath
every time we had to cross. Anyway,
although the ship made eleven and
eleven and half miles an hour nor
mally, we made one and a half and
two miles an hour.
So you can imagine what fun We
! had. AS to the six of us who went,
we had three Russians, one Finn, one
!, Armenian and myself. And if l say
, SO myself, it was the best crew that
ever handled 1915 sheep, bulls, 27
chickens and one dog. No one was
seasick or had any other ailment with
the exception of being able to eat
twice as much as we normally do.
Say, it would have done your heart
good to be in the same room with
US when we were eating. Where it
all went l don't know, but we GER
tainly kept the cook busy and sure
got our moneys worth. The first
night out the feed machinery didn't
work so we'll and we didn't get thru
until eleven o'clock. But after that
; everything went lovely.
The second day out, l was elected
interpreter between our crew who
couldn't speak English and the ships
crew who couldn't speak English CT
Russian, with the exception of the
first and second mate who spoke very
little English. So when l asked che
of the crew how long it would take ta
get to Leningrad, he would take cut
his watch and start at twelve and so
around thirty times so then | knew
it would take fifteen days. All in all
we had good trip and a good time.
The Red Flag.
The sailors were a bunch E prettv
good Swedes and all quite progressive
J and radical. They We're in Stockholm
during the Sacco-Vanzetti Gamcnstra-
ton and couple of them got arrested
for taking part. Oh, say! it's quite
a sensation to see the red flag wave
Tor the first time We were in the
f Baltic when a ship carrying the Red
Flag went by and | say it's some treat
for sore eyes. Once again, just as we
were sailing into the Gulf of Finland.
three war-ships flying the red flag
with hammer and sickle sailed out
najestically.
For the past two days in Russia. |
{ have been eating my dinners at the
| government dining room for ste
Vedors. It's red brick building with
/ great big chimney. The size of the
: building Is about GO by 100 feet I
- rresuMe that the building was some
KIND OF power house before tho
: revolution and the government changed
: It INTO dining room. 1t has three
F., rows Ct tables the full length of the
building, covered with oil-cloth of a
very pretty design, and Individual
. chairs They serve two kinds of
dlnners there, one for thirty kopeks
2 or fifteen cents and one for forty
i've kopeks or twenty-five and half
cents, So far have been eating the
5 thirty kopek dinners which are two
+. courses. I get a great big bowl Of
5 soup with big piece of meat in If
: The meat in the soup is just as bio
e as regular order of meat in an
= American restaurant. And then Won
get your choice of four differ nj
xmas OF meat for your second plate
= "hlch includes potatoes and onions
ana large order Of black bread
, White rolls are three kopeks extra.
t There are two different kinds of SOM
/. one vegetable and one with greats
and some other kind of stuff that
looks like peas but taste different
, And OF course, as you know, no meal
IS meal in Russia without tea. There
are those who bring their own meals
and use the knives and forks. salt
= pepper and mustard free of charge.