BX June 22, 1915
Mr. Geo. Lowe, of Cobourg, received the following letter from his son Mr. Fred Lowe, who has just arrived in England with the Second Contingent, having enlisted in Brantford and gone with the Brantford boys.
May 21, 1915
On Board S.S. Missanabie
… with about 2,500 on board, Tuesday, 25th.
We had a fine trip down the St. Lawrence from Montreal. We did not stop at Quebec, just slowed up. A battleship cheered us as we went through Quebec.
The boat is very crowded and we can do scarcely any drill although we are getting a little physical drill every day.
The coast of Newfoundland is foggy as I have always heard it was and I managed to see the fisherman in their boats lifting nets, while their large boat stood off about two miles away. They were tossed about like chips.
As we came down the river from Montreal, people lined the factory wharves and tugs whistled and we had a pretty good send-off considering that we were taken into Montreal a back way and that people were not allowed on any of the wharves and docks near where we were.
The meals we are having on board are better than we had in Toronto, but I haven’t any appetite and they are not any good to me.
The main things that bother us are money and books to read. We are all dead broke. We could not even buy Health’s Salts to cure sea-sickness. There seems to be a common fear of a submarine attack and all lights are out every night and port holes are covered with blankets and we can’t uncover them before six in the morning. It would be a serious crime if anyone was caught taking a blanket off a port hole.
The few magazines we have on board are of an ancient date and are in a very sad state of repair from so much handling they are practically worn out, and fellows go from one state room to another asking for a paper or book, it doesn’t matter what date as long as it can be read, and they pass from one hand to another all round the ship and are read, borrowed and stolen many times a day.
We are on here with the 13th and 14th Batteries of Toronto, 16th from Guelph, 1,100 infantry from Vancouver and some nurses and our guns and a load of ammunition make up the cargo. They are more careful now than ever since we left Quebec and the windows are strictly guarded and the guards on board after being detailed must parade with their life preservers.
We have been having lifeboat drill every day since we came on board. This afternoon the siren blew four long shrill blasts and with hearing all kinds of submarine stories we got quite a start and there was a lot of hurrying and bustle on deck. It proved to be a call for the crew to close all the bulk head doors just for a trial.
There are double lookouts on every post on board and there were no lights on board at all last night. A lot of excitement was caused last night by a light appearing on the horizon and as the fellows all crowded around the forward lookouts to try and see it they were ordered below. The light proved to be a rear light on an old schooner.
Later destroyers proved to be our escort into port. They are not very large, but look as if they would stand a lot. These submarines are very low, but have great speed. The one on our right is Lucifer No. 2 and on the left No. 1. They have to slow down to allow a boat like this to keep even with them.
Sunday morning, May 30. – This is the second Sunday on board, but we are tied up at the dock. We came into the harbor of Plymouth last night. It was a grand sight. Great lights swept the sky in all directions and war boats, destroyers and merchant ships were all around the sound. We anchored in the sound about five miles out, then came in this morning.
The submarines seem to have been very active while we were coming in as a vessel was sunk just a short distance from where we were but, of course, we did not know anything about it until we saw it in the papers.
The trains are funny looking things, but they certainly can travel. We were about eight hours coming up from Plymouth. The people crowded in along the iron fences and handed us papers, books and anything they happened to have and would not take any money, but they all wanted Canadian coppers. I asked one little kid if he knew who we were, and he said “I knows, you are Canadians,” with great accent on Canadians’.
I am in need of socks as the walking on hard roads like this is going to be hard on socks and please send some Canadian coppers, for I won’t be complete around this country without a few coppers to give away, for they ask for them every place we go.
The camp is an old race course and the track is about a minute’s walk from here. We are a few miles from Dover and that’s where the troops go to France from. They say you can see the white cliffs of France at Folkestone seven miles from here. Have just had run to the door to see seven cars of wounded men going back from the front. This bunk house is right alongside of the station, a country one, of course.
The people here seem to honor us as if we were coming back from the front instead of recruits beginning to train for the front.
Yours,
Fred
