Boat drill, a well-ordered scramble for life boats, took place twice daily. Each morning we indulged in strenuous setting-up exercises in order that we might remain in trim. Practice with depth bombs and smoke screens helped to relieve the tedium of the long trip.
As we neared our unknown destination, our escort was increased by ten British torpedo boat destroyers. Veritable sea dogs they were, darting every which-way, breasting wave after wave, ever watchful for the tricky Hun.
And then, on Friday. April 19th, land! Just a ridge above the horizon—the blue hills of Wales—but already we could feel in our imaginations the solidity which our unsailorly legs had missed.
As the day waned we sighted the lighthouse at the mouth of the River Mersey. With cheers of relief we were permitted to doff our bulky life belts. Just before dusk we entered the Mersey, passing closely by the beautiful seaside resort of New Brighton.
Forging up the river we reached Liverpool and, at nine o'clock that evening, after almost fourteen days afloat, our transport was moored. The city, as we saw it from the decks of the Justicia, lay quietly, with lights beginning to twinkle in the increasing gloom.
One by one the companies formed and debarked, and at 11:15 P.M. B Company marched down the gang plank, thru half-lighted sheds, into those curious side-door railway cars so peculiar to Europe. Exactly at midnight our train pulled out of Liverpool. At 3:00 A.M. a short stop for hot coffee was made at Rugby. We passed thru the outskirts of London at 6:00 A.M. and at nine-twenty the train rolled into the terminal at Dover.
The private yacht of Belgium's Queen Elizabeth had been pressed into service as a cross-channel ferry and in this royal craft, under escort of destroyers, aeroplanes, and dirigibles, we crossed to Calais in an hour and thirty-five minutes. The crossing was enlivened when two riflemen of the crew took to firing at mines that endangered our passage.
Picardy and Flanders—April 20th to June 10th
© Underwood & Underwood
"Let's Go!" Washington's Birthday, 1918