man was instructed at
the sound of the alarm to go to his bunk and stand there until given
further orders. In the meantime, he was to put on his life belt. The
boys marched out to the life boats only when they received orders from
their superiors to do so. After a few drills, we mastered the
manoeuver and it would have been possible for us to have emptied that
boat of 1,500 soldiers in twelve minutes, if such action had been
necessary.

We had life drills two or three times a day all the way across. The
signal for the drill was four siren blasts, and when we heard those
blasts, there was a lively time on deck for a few minutes, until the
ship, in theory, had been abandoned.

American people, who believe in giving their soldiers the right kind
of treatment, and particularly wholesome food, would have been
righteously indignant, if they could have known how poorly we were fed
while on that transport. Those at home were buying Liberty Bonds and
paying heavy war taxes so that the boys in the fighting forces would
be well fed and clothed, and yet, it is hard to imagine how men could
have been treated worse, so far as food is concerned than were the men
of this boat. I am going to be just as frank as I know how in
describing food conditions with the hope that by calling public
attention to this petty graft, such practices will be stopped, so far
as American fighting men are concerned. To any who have weak stomachs,
I suggest that they skip over the next two or three pages, as the
details may nauseate them.

The kitchens and mess rooms of the transport were on the top deck.
Meal tickets were issued to the men, and when they went to mess, the
tickets were punched. This is the way the Government kept track of the
number of meals served, as these tickets were collected when we left
the boat. The white men were fed first, and the colored troopers
afterwards. This was done so as to keep free of any possibility of
racial trouble, and apparently it worked well.

After the second day out, our "chow," which is the soldier's name for
food of all kinds, was vile. It consisted largely of spoiled beef and
such foods as spoiled rabbits. When I say spoiled, I mean just what
the word implies. These rabbits were positively in a state of decay.
They had been in cold storage for a long time, evidently a very long
time. They had been carried in the ice boxes without being drawn, and
when exposed to the air the odor of decay was so strong tha