Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1919 — LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS

Harvey Phillips Has Probably Now Ijanded in IT. H. Mrs. J. R. Phillips of McCoy sburg received the following letter a few days ago from her son Harvey, who has been overseas for the past year or more and has probably now landed in the United States, according to the clipping attached below: U. S. S. Mobile at Sea, Meh. 28. Deer Mother and All —Well, at last, we are on the final stage of coming to the U. S. A. I was fortunate enough to get on crew 5. We are the first American sailors to take over a German ship.. We left Eastleigh Wednesday morning. Walked about two miles to the train. • Then to South Hampton on the train. Two destroyers were alongside the dock to take us out to our frtiip. She is a dandy shAp. Twostacker, coal burner, 17,000 tons—a sister ship of the that was sunk last June. She was in pretty fair condition considering everything. She was brought over by the Germans. But had to anchor out in the harbor as the English government would not alloyr them to land. We took on a few provisions and got under way Thursday afternoon about 3 o'clock. We’re now bound for Liverpool to take on provisions of all kinds, medical supplies and

coal. We also get troops and about 1,000 Red Cross nurses. Then we go home, and I hope a furlough is awaiting us. Due to the fact that we are short of coal we are only using half our boilers and therefore do not make much speed. At the best we can only make about 1 6 knots per hour. Well, it’s getting late and 5:30 comes pretty early, so I’ll finish this tomorrow if I get time. Have been pretty busy getting the store and ice boxes in shape for provisions. Will write more. Goodnight. Well, this is Sunday morning. We got in here last night about 5 o’clock. Took us 50 hours to run 490 miles, only averaged about 8 to 9 knots. The engines will be overhauled here. “All the boilers are dirty amid leaking. All the water lines are stopped up with waste. The ship itself is clean, with the exception of a few store rooms. • I’ll have to go to work as we’re going to dock at 10 a. m. and we have a little more work to do before'we get started loading. I’ll have one of the boys mail this this afternoon if I don’t mail it myself. Give my best regards to all. My address is 11. S. S. Mobile, care postmaster, New York. Will write again before we leave here. With love to all, HARVEY.