I felt like a hardened old sailor, for here I was high up in the crow’s nest, swaying from side to side, right over the water, and in tip-top form with a husky appetite for the next meal. I still felt fine when I climbed down to the deck, but was too wise to kid anybody. And it was a good thing I kept quiet, for an hour later I was as miserable as the rest of them. We certainly had a seasick crew for a couple of days. The green firemen were so sick that they were unable to stoke properly and we failed to keep up with the rest of our convoy. We kept dropping farther and farther behind, the firemen still shy their sea-legs and also some of the crew. Nobody saw the doctor and the paymaster for four days.... Then the doctor made a brief appearance in the sick-bay. He looked at a cut in a man’s hand, clapped his own hand over his mouth, and we didn’t see him again for two days more. But he came around in fine shape after that, on the job every minute, although he was not needed often, I am glad to say. To make a long story short, we abandoned all hope of staying with the first division and ploughed along by ourselves for a few days, then picking up the second group consisting of four transports and the same type of escort. Everything went along smoothly for four days and then our destroyers came out to meet us from Queenstown. There were five of them and a bully good sight they were to us who were getting pretty close to the danger zone with our precious transports. The destroyers came zipping up like gray streaks and were on us almost before we knew it. We stood on deck and cheered ourselves hoarse. They were the boys who had gone over early, the first of the Navy to see active service. They were glad to see us, too, it appeared, and many messages were wig-wagged back and forth. They fell into position and all hands felt as safe as a church. About two o’clock in the afternoon of the next day, I was below getting a drink of water when suddenly there was a loud explosion. I remember that at the time I thought somebody had dropped a hatch cover directly over my head. I realized in a moment that it was something else, for I heard loud shouts and the tramp of feet on deck. I was topside in no time and rushed for my gun as I was the loader of Number Three gun. The transports had all stopped. One of them, nearest to us, was giving the submarine warning, a number of blasts on her whistle which sounded uncanny to us because it was the first time we had heard anything from the transports since leaving New York. They had moved across the ocean like so many ghosts. It was a beautiful, clear day and the sea was as smooth as a carpet.