Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - May 28, 1917
Transcript
May 28, 1917 Dearest Mother, This letter and all of my letters are for the family as I can't write to all of you. I suppose you want to know just what I do every minute and all about this ship and the fellows on board and etc. There is little to do on shipboard except to eat, sleep, loaf, play chess, read and write letters. That is about my daily program. I get up at 10:30 and
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miss Petit Dejeuner which isn't anything but coffee and eggs. I get dressed just in time for Dejeuner at 11:00 AM. Then I loaf, read and play chess until 6:00 when we have Dinner. Then I loaf, read and play chess until bedtime at 11:30. That gives me only two meals a day but they are some meals - entre, soup, fish, roast, vegetables, salad, dessert, fruit and cheese. We have such things as artichoke, grapefruit, steak, fried chicken, roast turkey and wonderful sea-food.
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Then we have two kinds of wine with every meal This is the life. My cabin is a wonderful place to stay away from. It's low down both in the ship and in the scale of living. We have 4 men in it two bunks one over the other on each side of the room and an aisle the width of our narrow door between. The cabin is six inches longer than our very short bunks. The bunks are about ½ the width of an upper berth in a Pullman car and the aisle between is too narrow for me to stand in and put my hands on my hips. Then to add to our joy we have no porthole. The ship has been remodeled for war use and every inch is valuable. We are crowded with passengers and loaded down with cargo so much in fact that it is piled on deck boxes marked DuPont Powder Co. and Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. Most of the passengers are ambulance men although there are a few members of the Lafayette Esquidrille and
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some French officers and women. There are quite a few Croix de Guerre to be seen. Some of them are privates in the steerage. I haven't been sea sick although on the 4th and 5th days out we had rough weather some of the waves washing up over the top deck. We have passed but few ships and seen no warships or submarines. We have had a few life boat drills and yesterday the lifeboats were lowered part of the way down and left there ready for almost instant use.
Transcript
We show no lights on deck. The decks are curtained in with canvas at night and the portholes closed and masked with steel plates. Today an order was posted forbidding smoking on deck and loud talking at night because that might betray us to a U boat. Last night we had a Fete de Charite the program of which I am enclosing. The raffle was $1 per chance and the prizes were little things such as glasses of preserves, cubes of chocolate, and etc. The unclaimed prizes were sold at auction
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and brought in lots. One cube of chocolat sold for $5.00 and a shaving brush brought nearly $20.00. The show brought in over 4000 francs from about 400 people. It was really quite a thrilling show. You could feel the intense love of France on the part of everyone and trifles were bid in for lots of money to help the cause. Of course the Star Spangled Banner and the Marseillaise ended the program. I tried to go to bed at 1:00 AM but a bunch of wild Californians in the next cabin were too drunk and noisy to let me sleep before 3:00 AM. I got a little relief to my feelings from swearing at them but it had no effect on them. My love to you and Janet and the whole damn family. Tell everyone to write me. Towner P.S. Send on packages to American Express Co., in Paris. P.S. again. My passage cost only $48.75 - Lucky
Details
| Title | Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - May 28, 1917 |
| Creator | Phelan, Sidney Towner |
| Source | Phelan, Sidney Towner. Letter to mother. May 28, 1917. Sidney Towner Phelan Papers, 1899-1960. A1209. Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri. |
| Description | Sidney Towner Phelan, a St. Louis, Missouri native, wrote this letter to his Mother while serving as a volunteer ambulance driver in France during World War I. In this letter he provided a detailed description of his voyage overseas. |
| Subject LCSH | World War, 1914-1918--France; World War, 1914-1918--Transportation; Ambulance driving |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | A1209 |
| Contributing Institution | Missouri History Museum |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond those allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the Missouri History Museum: 314-746-4510 |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. Contact the Missouri History Museum's Permissions Office at 314-746-4511 to obtain written consent. |
| Date Original | May 28, 1917 |
| Language | English |