Copyright by Kadel and Herbert, N. Y.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER WILLIAM B. PORTER, LATER COMMANDING U.S.S. CORSAIR, AND LIEUTENANT ROBERT E. TOD, NAVIGATOR
May 26th. I have the P.O. mess. Dirty job. Another man got canned to-day. I do wish they would settle on the crew. I understand now that the Corsair will sail for Gravesend, England, on Thursday. Mr. McGuire told me last night that he is afraid some more men will have to be put off for lack of room. It certainly keeps us feeling jumpy.... 29th. Coaled ship all day. It was a frightful job. It was shot onto the decks and we shovelled it into the bunkers. We took on 350 tons and the dirt and coal dust are unspeakable. To add to the discomfort it rained all day. To-morrow is a national holiday, but not for us.
May 30. To-day we spent washing the ship. We turned loose the hose for four hours and it looks better, but is not clean by a long shot. I have caught a rotten cold. To-day more of the crew got fired. Thirty-two regulars from the South Carolina came aboard to fill up the crew. We now have a full complement.... 31st. Still raining. I have never known such beastly weather. We are still loading stores and I don’t understand where all the stuff is put. We are carrying the fleet paymaster and the fleet postmaster, so it looks as if we would also be the fleet dispatch boat on the other side. Heaven only knows when we will sail. We have been expecting to go every night. Liberty is very scarce these days.
June 1st. Still more rain. I don’t expect a decent day this summer. We are still loading, loading, loading. Food, clothes, and ammunition. A hundred and fifty pounds on my back is nothing any more. They first announced that we were to have liberty to-morrow and then cancelled it. Haven’t been mess cook or on watch for five days. Hope my good luck continues. The regulars are a good bunch, with few exceptions, and I am surprised that most of them are so young. They run from nineteen to twenty-two on an average, barring the petty officers who are older.
June 4th. We sail definitely to-morrow, nobody knows where. In the afternoon I went to the Subtreasury with the paymaster to get money. We both carried guns and brought back $10,000 in gold to the ship. It was some load to carry.... 5th. We shoved off from the Navy Yard at 8.30 A.M. and are now heading north in Long Island Sound. No idea yet where we are heading for. We cruised in the Sound all day and anchored at Whitestone for the night. Got our battle billet to-day. I am as follows:
Fire. Extinguisher in crew quarters.
Boat. Big motor sailer.
Gun. Fire control aft.