S.S. Vaderland
March 1st
My darling girl
I am starting this letter now that we are within 3 or 4 days from the Old Country & will mail it as soon as we land, we left the docks at Halifax about 1 P.M. on Monday shortly after I had written my last letter to you, we anchored in the harbour that afternoon & left on Tuesday morning about 10 a m in the following order, the Cruiser Essex leading, next came the "Messenabi" [sic] with Artillery, Army Service Corps & different units on board, then our own ship & in the rear the Megantic about 1000 troops on each, we have been travelling in that order right along, we had no idea where we were bound for until a day or two ago & now according to the chart it looks like the Old Country alright, we have had a splendid voyage so far no storms everything lovely, the officers have the 1st Class cabins so you can bet we are in clover, we dont know yet what port we shall put into, the Captain of each troopship gets his orders from the Commander of the Cruiser, & they are in touch by wireless with the Old Country, we get a News Bulletin every day. We started organizing our band last Tuesday, & as there is one slide Trombone which we have not got a player for yet I go to the practices in the morning & afternoon this with my other duties makes the time pass very quickly. Strange to say the Captain of this ship, the Chief Officer & 1st officer are all Welshmen, have not seen anything of the Chief officer & 1st officer, but the Captain whose name is Davies I often have a chat with, he's a jolly good sort a regular Old Briton & the officers all like him, today is St David's day & while we were all at dinner a large platter with a white table napkin on was passed to me, after I took napkin off behold there was on the platter a bunch of leeks, I took them & set them up in front of me, then the rest called for a speech, but I conpromised [sic] by singing Hen Wdad y Nhadai after which they drank to the health of St David & sang for He's a jolly good fellow.
Well kiddie, I'll close for tonight, every night before I drop to sleep I have a picture of my dear little wife and my sweet little kiddies, I do wish I had a photograph of you all, Get one taken & send me one as soon as you can, I share a cabin with Major Yates the one who got engaged to that girl of The Chimes of Normandy, he's a very decent sort.
March 3rd 8-15 p.m. Well sweetheart we expect to be in Queenstown Ireland early tomorrow morning so will proceed to bring my epistle to a close, I believe we are to disembark there to cross the channel with one of the fast boats. Am enclosing a paper just off the press tonight, could only get three as the supply is limited have sent one to Jack & one to Joe Horner . The weather has been fine all along the best crossing I have ever had of course it has been slow. Well darling it no doubt has seemed a long time since you got my last letter but from now on shall try & let you hear often dont know if I can manage the three a week business but shall try & let you have two at least.
Fondest love to Frank, Gwladys, & little Eric & love to the girls, the "word ain't built" that I can use to express my love to you.
Your loving hubby,
Jim.
