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FRIDAY, THE THIRTEENTHIS “GOOD LUCK ’ DAY FORSEVERAL LOCAL WARRIORSFriday, the thirteenth, proved to beII'lthe fcood-luek day of a number of Mus eatine's warriors *The last contingent of Battery Cmen. who had enlisted in Jun#! 1517,'almost a year and a half ago. in order to get a shot at the kaiser, and who had been trained extensively in the southern cantonments, finally were given orders to leave their camp at Fort Sill. Okla.. for an eastern entrain-inent camp, and then for France on Friday. September 13. |That number has stayed with them since that time. iTwenty minutes after the C men left the ferry in New Vork.it was blown up.!On the thirteenth day at sea. during a heavy storm, their steamer, the Kashmir, crashed into another transport. the Otranto. A hole large enough to drive an army truck through was torn in the side of the ship, but they reached an Irish port in safety without a single casualty.But. they did not get to take an active part in the big battle. jTells of Trip,In referring to the trip overseas of the lust Battery C men. the following letter has been received from Clark Bowen, one of the members of the company: jAs this is ‘Pads* Letter day.* I amdoing my duty. We are now permittedto tell where we have been and whatwe are doing |* We left New York September 24 on the good ship Kashmer, an English!vessel jThe first three or four davs werenot so bad, but beginning on the fifthday we hit storm after storm, until the thirteenth day, when the storm reached its heighth, and the old sailors weretelling us that it was the worst they! had seen for years We rammed an-; other English vessel, the Otranto. This happened while we were below for mess, and being: in the ‘sub zone/ wedid not know* what was up. When we got to the deck there was the bigcruiser lying almost on her side and showing every deck. We could even see her boilerroom. We had a hole in our boat big enough to drive an army truck through That was the way we pulled into that part that night. The Otranto ran aground on the Irish coast and 1 believe went to pieces there “That night we pulled into the Clyde river to wait for high tide so we couldg«» to Glasgow* landing there the nextevening, where we met our first English coach We pulled into Winchester the following day,* We stayed there three days andthen we left for South Hampton. Eng , where we boarded the rragansett I*.S S There we saw* the First American blue Jackie we had seen for over amonth We landed in Havre. Franc#,the next morning We laid there in anAmerican rest camp for a few days eating two-eyed steak and drinkingEnglish tea.• * From then on we saw- France in abox car I really think we were lost,because we traveled three days ormore. I am sure we saw* every large city in France but Paris We landed at La Margue. about twenty miles from Bordeaux We were there about two weeks and were marched to Camp de Souge, about ten miles from Bordeaux.“I have signed up for the military police. Their work is a good deal like the mounted police in Canada It may keep me here for a few months longer, hut someone had to stay, and if enough hadn't volunteered w e would have been drafted, so don't expect me back with the battery Then. too. we may not be taten: it is just a gamble, after all*‘ If w*e do stay, we will have a fine time and perhaps see a great deal of these countries Several other Muscatine boys are staying in different ofservice Some think they will be homefor Christmas, but that is not known **
Newspaper Details
Muscatine Journal and News Tribune
Muscatine, Iowa, US
Fri, Dec 20, 1918
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Musser P.
IA, USA 20 Dec 2018
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