TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE NOVEMBER 10, 1918 P. 40
I was on one of the five American destroyers that had been ordered to stay within the three-mile limit, in the harbor on Manila, condemned as unseaworthy. Later we were ordered to report for duty in the war zone, which meant a hurry-up cruise across the world. We didn’t know where we were going until we were five miles out of Manila bay, when the captains called their crews to quarters and told them, ‘We’re going to war,’ and the men let out a yell.
We left Manila August 1, 1917, and on October 20, 1917 our log showed 11,008 miles in an actual steaming time of 39 days, 14 hours and 50 minutes, out of a total of 81 days and five hours. We coaled at a number of islands on the way across, touching at British North Borneo, the Nicobar Islands, Bombay, a harbor on the Arabian coast, and Aden, the longest leg of the cruise, a 2,100-mile run between Bombay and Aden being broken by several stops necessitated by the condition of some of our five old tin water snakes. At Bombay we tied up alongside miles of low, black freight sheds in Alexandria dock, and the crews were ordered to stay out of the native quarter because there was bubonic plague about.
We went up the Red sea, into the Mediterranian, where we got ready for the Hun, our life lines strung in their places, the 4,000-ton mother ship in the center and her five tin water snakes around her. We were near Naples, however, before we sighted a submarine. When the first shot was fired the Hun went under quick. At Naples, the mother ship discharged her cargo of rice and some of the officers went up to Rome. At 9 o’clock on the morning of October 20 we steamed into his majesty’s dockyard at Gibraltar.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by First Class Machinist’s mate Clyde Frank Bronson to his mother Mrs. M. L. McCabe of North Little Rock, Arkansas. He volunteered for the Navy November 28, 1915. He was born on July 6, 1893 and died October 28, 1968. He is buried Little Rock National Cemetery. His military headstone identifies him as serving in the U S Navy, WW I.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
I was on one of the five American destroyers that had been ordered to stay within the three-mile limit, in the harbor on Manila, condemned as unseaworthy. Later we were ordered to report for duty in the war zone, which meant a hurry-up cruise across the world. We didn’t know where we were going until we were five miles out of Manila bay, when the captains called their crews to quarters and told them, ‘We’re going to war,’ and the men let out a yell.
We left Manila August 1, 1917, and on October 20, 1917 our log showed 11,008 miles in an actual steaming time of 39 days, 14 hours and 50 minutes, out of a total of 81 days and five hours. We coaled at a number of islands on the way across, touching at British North Borneo, the Nicobar Islands, Bombay, a harbor on the Arabian coast, and Aden, the longest leg of the cruise, a 2,100-mile run between Bombay and Aden being broken by several stops necessitated by the condition of some of our five old tin water snakes. At Bombay we tied up alongside miles of low, black freight sheds in Alexandria dock, and the crews were ordered to stay out of the native quarter because there was bubonic plague about.
We went up the Red sea, into the Mediterranian, where we got ready for the Hun, our life lines strung in their places, the 4,000-ton mother ship in the center and her five tin water snakes around her. We were near Naples, however, before we sighted a submarine. When the first shot was fired the Hun went under quick. At Naples, the mother ship discharged her cargo of rice and some of the officers went up to Rome. At 9 o’clock on the morning of October 20 we steamed into his majesty’s dockyard at Gibraltar.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by First Class Machinist’s mate Clyde Frank Bronson to his mother Mrs. M. L. McCabe of North Little Rock, Arkansas. He volunteered for the Navy November 28, 1915. He was born on July 6, 1893 and died October 28, 1968. He is buried Little Rock National Cemetery. His military headstone identifies him as serving in the U S Navy, WW I.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT