Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1917 — Letter From Vern Davisson. [ARTICLE]

Letter From Vern Davisson.

July 30, 1917, 1,700 Miles From Land, S. S. Chicago. Dear Father and Mother : We are all O. K. and .sailing along fine. Neither one of us got seasick. We sleep until* about 10:30 in the morning and stay up until 12 at nisht. We passed close to three big ships. So far none of them were enemies. When the man in the crow’s nest spies a ship in the distance he signals with a bell and the gunners and spy glass men get busy. The gunner gets his gun pointed in the direction of the approaching ship and they all remain at their posts untl the ship coming is pronounced safe. Today they are getting the life boats all in good condition and polishing up the guns. * From the 31 to the time of landing we are in the danger zone. None of us are allowed to appear on deck in our military uniforms. We run without lights at night and no smoking on deck goes after 6 o’clock. '• Convoys come out from Bordeaux and escort us the balance of the way in. We land Aug. 3rd. We are getting so we can talk some French now. I can ask for anything I want at the table. There are Red Cross, aviators, artists, field service, architects and French soldiers going over on this boat. We play all kinds of games on deck, such as deck tennis, relay racing, leap-frog, broad jump and spot racing. Our boat is about 500 feet long by 50 wide.

Every day we have to set our watches ahead 20 minutes. The gunner that handles the gun on the front end of the boat has sunk five or six submarines and was also on the ship that was sunk by a submarine some time ago. As soon as we land at Bordeaux we get our military passes and must go to Paris on the first train. I will write more tomorrow. August 1, 1917. 600 miles from Coast of France. Now we are in the danger zone. All of the lifeboats are swinging out and hanging over the sidfes of the jjteamer ready to receive the passengers at Any time. Everyone is ordered to sleep on deck with their clothes on and life savers by their side. Three long, sharp whistles is the sign to hike for the lifeboats. There are extra guards on duty now, two in the very front of the boat, two on the mast, one half way up and the other clear up to the top; four on the bridge with field glasses, two on the back end. Two guns and four gunners. We average almost 30Q miles a day. The sea is very rough today and several of the passengers are throwing up their lunches. The boat is pitching and swaying to beat the band. A funny little thing happened today which will go to show how people act when a ship gives the signal to man the life boats. Our wireless apparatus, which is swinging from the very top of the two masts, one end of it fell, paused by a high sea and pitching of the boat. ,As luck would have it, it fell on . the wire which is attached to the whistle and it pulled the whistl®, which gave a long, sharp screaming sound like something was wrong. Everyone was scared. Talk about scrambling for life boats and running for deck. It was a sight to see. The Rensselaer fire whistle would not. be in it at all. I was in my cabin, down almost to the water line, and Sam was asleep. I punched him in the ribs and made him- get up. He was the worst scared fellow you ever saw. I was not the least bit scared. The people flew by my cabin door like bullets. It was finally discovered what the trouble was and soon the riot was over and everyone had a good laugh. We get very good eats on this boat, three meals a day and about 3:30 p. m. we have tea. Yesterday we passed within talking distance of a big French freighter. The gunners were some busy men until they were sure what kind of a boat it was.

Say, for John’s sake, send me some Climax chewing tobacco. I cannot get anything but cigarettes and I don’t like them. Send one of those two pound tin containers. Billy Waymire knows what size. Cannot get chewing in France. In your letter tell ine how many and who the boys are that were drafted for service. Yesterday I saw two whales alongside of the boat. They were very large. I understand we will sight land some time tomorrow, then it will take about eight hours sailing up the river. I did not know there was so much water in the world. I have told you about all I know so will cable whe.i we reach Bordeaux or Paris, wherever we have time. .. VERN C, DAVISSON