World War I was quite an adventure for America's young men. Here's an excerpt from a letter home about the perils of seasickness and other trivia aboard a troop ship.

Another Day

Since I wrote, we have had a southeast rainstorm, a glorious cold October day when everyone wore all their sweaters, and now summer again. There's hardly a person aboard who isn't ready to see land now. Because nothing happens. The poker continues, so do the dried peaches, and someone doesn't answer a roll call – but there's nothing more to help us remember that we're alive.

We have official rumors now – and just plain rumors – that float from one end of the ship to the other, telling when and where we land. Probably someone knows – but
no one tells.

Our mathematics shark notes the changes in time and one day figures we are one thousand miles away and again that we have already arrived. His deductions are lengthy and amusing.

The daily change in time is the one big event of the day. Wrist watches at best are none too accurate, and trying to keep them in harmony with the ship's bells means the grandest turning of hands from sunrise to sunset. The ''dough-boys" are a little scornful of wrist watches. I don't know what would happen if they saw our swagger sticks.

Someone who wasn't a math shark figured that every match lights one hundred cigarettes. One lighted cigarette serves as punk for everyone in sight.

There is lots about the trip I'll have to save until I get back. It is all so new and interesting that I'll probably remember it all.

[…]

I'll land with ninety-seven dollars in my pocket and thirty-six dollars more coming the first of every month, so I'm not worrying any financially.

I've learned to count up to ten in French and am trusting to the honesty of the merchants for the rest. We have various volunteer interpreters and Asher Hinds has promised to stay by my side. My six years of German will probably be as useful as my year of botany.

Salt-water shaving is my latest achievement. With marine soap, it isn't so bad if you are careful and the ship doesn't rock too much. The daily salt-water shower is refreshing but crowded. I found someone scrubbing my foot the other morning.

The most encouraging part of the trip has been that we all know each other a lot better than we did in Allentown and have banded together into a very friendly crowd for whatever we have to go through. I could hardy pick a better crowd of fellows for it.

From Cheer-Up Letters from a Private with Pershing by Torrey Ford, US Army Ambulance Service, 1918.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

11.05.15 Front Page

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