Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1919 — Dorris Crooks Whites a Letter Home From France. [ARTICLE]

Dorris Crooks Whites a Letter Home From France.

The following extracts from a letter from Dorris Crooks, who sailed on the California last April, will be of interest to his many friends here: “We joined the mine fleet at Newport, R. 1., and came zig-zagging across, averaging about 12 miles an hour. We touched as far south as the Azores and as far north as Iceland. We came up around the Orkney Isles and down the Moreyfirth to Invernen, Scotland. The fleet operated out of there, and it Was our bunch that mined the North Sea. The Yankee mine layers carry about 840 mines and make from 15 to 23 knots per hour. We would lay the whole cargo in three hours by the track launching system. A mine weighs 1600 pounds, and believe me, it is some sight to see the bunch below deck, stripped to the waist, nothing on but a pair of dingayee pants and sandals, sweating

like horses, heaving and pushing down the long decks, dark except a little purple light here and there, up to elevator, throw the lever and up she goes, and then back for another. The fun comes when the sea is rough and old John mine is running away one minute and breaking your back the next when he runs his nose in the air. But I’ll tell you all when I’m home. We were the mine layers heven weeks, the non the base atevadore gang awhile, then in the lighter gang. The ships anchored down the Firth and we took mines down to them in dummy, lighters strung behind a tug. It was in this work we’ were caught in the storm and it took so many hours to rescue us. When we left Scotland we came down to Cardiff, Wales, and were shipped in the “black diamond” channel run between France and England. Some life, that. Since the armistice was signed I have been on the U. S. S. Kermoor. We took our first cargo to Brest. Got the orders mislaid, were sent back to Pensanne, turned there and went to Bordeaux and unloaded our cargo of 6,000 tons of coal, 800 tons of charcoal, twenty three-ton trucks, thirty army wagons and 13,000 big empty gas drums Some cargo, eh? The singing coons got us unloaded just in time ot be at sea for Thanksgiving, so we had salty ham, canned tomatoes, corn and jam for dinner. It was good, but—you know, ipother. But now is the best part. We are undergoing extensive repairs and will be ready to sail about Christmas. One more trip to Brest and then for the States, is how the orders run. I hope it goes through and if I am not released I’ll surely ask for a furlough and you can look for your soil to blow in about February. I got the Thanksgiving candy and it was sure fine, what I got to eat. Didn’t know what was in it and there were about twenty nearby—you know the rest I’ll be more careful of the big Christ mas box if I get it. The Kermoor hac a daily newspaper, illustrated by Crooks. I’ll save you a copy. Chow is coming. Devotedly, DORRIS.