Ahoy Shipmates

Set out below is another great letter from Frank B Lesher Electrician, USS Virginia

“Gibraltar, Spain

Feb. 3rd, 1909

Dear Father,

Received your letters of Jan. 12th, 16th, and 18th, inclusive, while here at the Rock.

Am glad to hear that you are coming down to the Roads to see the Fleet come in, but you will not be able to see me, or I see you on account of the fact that I will be on the left side of the ship as we enter the Roads. The Virginia will be the tenth ship in the line as we come by in review. The Virginia as I have stated before will go to the Norfolk Yard for repairs.
The trip from Smyrna to this port was an uneventful one, and the sea moderate at all times, the weather being a little cool. On Monday morning the 1st of February, we sighted the Rock, and the nearer we came the more grander and magnificent it appeared to be, until we anchored under its shadow on the West side. Where the English government has erected a large breakwater, and store houses for its immense supply of coal and provisions, which it keeps constantly on hand. Will enclose a rough map of the harbour and Rock. We are tied up to the finest breakwater of stone and concrete that I have as yet seen. Imagine a wall of rock and cement, forty feet in width, extending twelve feet above low water level and about one half mile long, and you can form some opinion as to the naval base which they have built at this place. There are about six such breakwaters erected in different parts of the Harbour.

The sun does not strike the ship until about nine o’clock on account of the proximity of the vessel to the base of the Rock. It surely is a giant piece of mountain, and appears to be about two thousand feet high. The part of which we see in the pictures denoting the strength of Gibraltar, in the Prudential sign, faces the land side and is on the North side of the Rock. Before we struck Gibraltar everybody was telling everybody-else, about the Prudential sign that one would see on reaching Gibraltar. The Chaplain cut the sign out of a magazine and pasted it out the side of his binoculars, which one holds away from him in looking though the glass. Then he went around the decks as soon as we sighted the Rock, giving everybody a look through his glass, and he deceived a good many of those who really believed that the sign was actually painted on the Rock.

A way in the distance to the Northward can be seen the snow capped peaks of the mountains of Spain, rearing their heads above the clouds. The Spaniard is every-where in evidence, going hither and thither in his row boat or steam launch, selling goods on board the ships, and trying to short change we Americans, in order to get even with the U.S.A.

Besides the sixteen American ships in the harbour, there are five Russian cruisers, one Danish cruiser and a number of English ships. The Mediterranean Fleet is due in on Friday, so all the American ships that have already coaled have to go out in order to let the English Fleet come in.

We coaled ship yesterday taking on board twelve hundred and fifty tons of coal. We have now on board our homeward bound coal, and all hands are not sorry. Well, we will soon be in Hampton Roads, and seeing each other personally, Love to Mother,

Affectionately, Frank


Cheers


Sean