Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1918 — FRANK McDONALD WRITES HOME FROM THE NAVY [ARTICLE]

FRANK McDONALD WRITES HOME FROM THE NAVY

New York City, June 15, 1918. Just got back from. France, completing my fourth trip in even three months; now that is doing pretty good for us. • Our last trip was one of some excitement, and it got quite interesting as the days went along. On May 28 we were about 600 off the French coast when at about 9 p. ip. there was an English mercdant ship sunk within a mile of us. We could easy see the glare of the explosion and hear the report. The next day one of the American destroyers got put out of action In a surface fight with an armed German sub and had to withdraw owing to the Huns placing a shot through the stern of the destroyer and disabling the steering engine. And on May 31, at 9 a. m., the U. S. S. President Lincoln was twice torpedoed and sent to the bottom in just twenty-five minutes, with twenty-seven of the crew of 740 missing. It is the first transport that iwe have lost. The Lincoln was a big ship with a carrying capacity of 5,000 soldiers and about 20,000 tons of cargo; was a slow ship and was sunk about 600 miles

from. France on her way back to the States. The loss of men was small, considering the place where the ’ ship was sunk. Along in the afternoon the German sub came to the surface and took pictures of the crew and looked in all of the boats for the captain but failed to find him, so they took the executive officer and two enlisted men as their prisoners and sailed • out. Don’t think that they got far because the destroyer Smith sighted a sub and run it down, and after dropping two depth bombs got almost positive proof that the sub’s sides were caved in and she now lies on the bottom of the sea with the Lincoln. The crew of the Lincoln was picked up about midnight by the destroyers, and on June 2 we got over 700 survivors aboard the destroyer, and on June 5 we sailed for the States, arriving June 12. We make it across and back in sixteen to twenty days, just depends on what ships are with us. When we go alone we make world’s records, have the quickest time record yet —sixteen days and fourteen hours fromi New York to , France, and return.

We don’t stay very long in either port and most all of our time is spent on the sea. So far I have no complaint to make except that it sure gets tiresome being at sea so much. Suppose you people are all as busy as can be with the work that farming requires, and it won’t be long until harvest time. Got a letter from Tott and they have a new place to live in now; said that she liked the place real well. Don’t know when I will get out that way; would like to pay them all a visit. I always send trinkets and stuff to her nearly every time I make a trip across and back. Was glad that you received the souvenirs and photo all O; K. Guess that I have said about all for this time, so will close.. Yours, as ever, FRANK.