Ahoy Shipmates

After a smalll absence (which I apologize for) I am recommencing the Great White Fleet instalments where it faltered wit the Fleet on its way to Ceylon with a letter from Frank B Lesher an Electrician on the USS Virginia and of whom we have seen correspondence before:

"At Sea
December 7th, 1908
Lat 3,03.N Long 100.44.E

Dear Papa,

We are now about to pass out of the Straits of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean. We passed by Singapore yesterday and I was able to get a fairly good view of it though my glasses. The inhabitants like those of the Island of Trinidad, took the passing of the fleet through the Straits as an every day event and nobody came out to see us except a few officials and some Americans. One woman whom I noticed in particular had a small megaphone through which she called to each ship, declaring that she wanted to go back to “Old Broadway” and that she wanted to go home. The Connecticut fired a twenty one gun salute and it was returned by a battery on shore.

All the way from Manila the weather has been most delightful and tonight the moon is shining brightly down upon the waters, as we go streaming along, every turn of the screws taking us nearer to the Old U.S.A.

Enclose a set of views of a ship of the Virginia class taken during the typhoon which we encountered during the trip to Japan. In the large pictures the black part of the hull, ordinarily is never out of the water.
At the present rate we are traveling we will arrive in Colombo ahead of the schedule time, however I will be able to tell you more definitely when I finish this at the above mentioned city."

Cheers


Sean