Year: 1879

We publish herewith the body of letter
from Frank Pratt to his mother. 1t will be
remembered that Frank went from here
last fall to enlist on the Government ship
Saratoga. The letter will be found full of
interest to his many friends.


U. S. SHIP SARATOGA,


New LONDON HARBOR, Conn,


July 81, 1879.
We arrived here on Tuesday, the 8th
inst; and have been very busy ever since
repainting the vessel inside and out; so
have not had time to write before. | am
as we'll rs can be expected, and all things
are going along smoothly in this harbor. l
will try and give you a short description of
our trip across the ocean and back. We
started from Hampton Roads on the third
of April last and got outside in the Atlantic
with a fair wind; but at nightfall gale
struck us and continued for three days and
nights with no let up. Then, after crossing
the Gulf Stream we had fair wind and fine
weather all the way. We reached the
Azore Islands and entered the harbor of
Fayal on the 18th of April, having made
the distance of twenty-five hundred miles in
fourteen days.


We had fine time at Fayal we all
hands went ashore and enjoyed ourselves
looking around and eating oranges, lemons
and bananas, Of which you could get all you
could carry for FIVE cents in our money.
We lay here thirteen days, and on the first
day of May started for the Madeiras, a
distance of eight hundred miles from Fayal
After we had been out two days, we en-
countered bad weather and heavy winds,
and could do nothing but furl our sails and
let the wild waves pitch us around like a
feather for eighteen days; that was. when
we all hands got sea sick and homesick.
Finally the wind came in our favor and we
made the best of it and in three days reached
the Madeiras, making in all twenty-five
days for eight hundred miles.


We lay here until the first of June.
Here it is all rock followed out, making a
complete city of stone. There are no car
riages or wagons here, everything is carried
on the backs of donkeys or on sleds. The
people ride in rude carriage bodies put on
runners and drawn by oxen. On the first of
June we up anchor and setsail for the great
peaks of Tenneriffe, among the most cele
brated peaks in the world. There is an
abundance of amusement to be found in
this old place; il is an old fashioned
Spanish port, we'll guarded with forts all
around. We got all kinds of fruit thate ever
grew here. We lay az anchor ten days and
| then set sail for the Bermuda Islands, a
distance of two thousand nine hundred
miles. We had laid in good stock of pro.
visions, expecting to be out abouta month,
but the wind proving favorable we made
the voyage in ten days.


We had to take pilot to take us safely
among the rocks, which are so dangerous
as to cause many ships to avoid these islands
entirely. We dropped our anchor about o
mile from shore, far enough to be safe from
the rocks. After everybody had been
ashore there came severe storm and we
had to drop both anchors to prevent being
driven ashore. There is nothing to be seen
here but lot of English soldiers and
English cannon, which are too numerous
te enumerate. After lying here week VIC
started for New York, where we arrived on
the ninth day of July. AS soon as we
dropped anchor the work began, painting
ship, cleaning up decks and other work, Sc
that we were busy all the time we were in
the harbor; we had no liberty here except
a dress parade on Governors Island, which
was kind of locked up liberty at best.


When we thought we had all the work
done, we received orders to start for Stony
FONT, up the Hudson River, to witness the
Centennial celebration of Mad Anthony,
victory in the Revolution. We arrived
there the next morning, had a wide-awakt
and noisy day, left in the evening and
reached New York again next morning
The same afternoon we pulled up anC