The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-10-17

In spite of couple of pretty
rugged storms at sea, there were
no "lee-rail Vikings" among four
Hagerstown boys-John Cottingham,
Bob Stimmel, Richard Troxell, Jr.,
and John Wilbur Crout-who re-
Gently completed a round trip
junket to Europe via cattle boat,
according to John Cottingham, who
was interviewed by Globe-Inde-
pendent reporter shortly after his
return.
I'm case the expression is I'M
familiar, a lee-rail Viking" is a
sailor who, overcome with that old
NAL de mer, as the French insist
upon calling seasickness, prudently
seeks the calm of the lee or pro-
tected side of the ship to cope with
his problem)
Not one of the HagerstoWn
youths, all landlubbers of the first
order until they set sail from Bal
timore, August %, felt the slightest
symptom Of the dread malady,
though they had day and a half
of rough storm going over and four
or five days of concentrated pitch
ing and tossing coming back.
Nor did the $50 head of cattle,
bound for Czechoslovakia under the
auspices of the New Windsor Re
lief Center, suffer unduIy according
to young Cottingham. The boys had
been informed when they signed up
for the trip, that their duties would
consist of feeding and watering the
cattle and keeping them on their
feet at all times, as cows have a
tendency to die of seasickness.
This, said John lis all wrong.
Cows don't get sick at all from
lying down - its horses who die of
seasickness, because they have a one
way throat pipe"
At any rate only seven cattle
were lost on the trip-all from some
thing vaguely characterized as ship
ping diseases.
The volunteer crew, of which the
four Hagerstown High School seniors
were a part, was made up of fifteen
young men, including the foreman
and a veterinarian In addition to
the cattle, the little Liberty ship.
the Cyrus w. Field, was loaded
down with grapefruit juice and cot
ton, also destined for Czechoslo-
vakia, and rosin for England.
At the end of ffteen-day pass
age, the Hagerstown boys found
/ themselves anchored in the harbo4
at Bremen, where German steve
dores fell to and transferred the
cattle and cargo to trains bound for
the Czech border, and the crew drew
four days shore leave in the Ger
man port.
Bremen, according to young Cot
/ tingham, is really hattened out. The
few buildings still standing have
been taken over by the American
Military Government, the Army and
the Red Cross.
'It was very dull there" John
said, there isn't anything much to
do and nowhere to go except to G,
1. restaurants and ice cream parlors
The Red Cross is doing a good job
they show movies at their center
and conduct tours for the military
and for German children. They also
run a coffee and coke bar and have
floor shows"
The devastated port has been
built up to some extent and is ac-
commodating a lot of American,
British and Russian shipping, the
boys found.
AS to conditions among the Ger
mans, young Cottingham reported
that in Bremen they are excessively
shabby and are not, according to
report, getting any more clothes for
the time being. They do not, how
ever, look or seem to be hungry.
There are more than plenty of
cows scattered all over the country
side around Bremen" John said. I'm
fact, we wondered why they don't
just take the German cows to
Czechoslovakia instead of taking
ours, ''he added, with the wistful
look so often found on the faces of
teen-age males confronted with the
current meat shortage
The Hagerstown boys found the
Germans most amiable, and for the
most part quite fluent in English.
They came aboard the ship and car
ried on a brisk operation, exchang-
ing good German watches and Ger
man-ground steel razors, among
other things, for American cigaretts,
which are worth SO marks or $500
American money, per package.
Asked about the food stores,