Dear Grandpa,
I decided to take your advice by joining the navy. Since I could not find a college that I wanted to or get into this had seemed like the right thing to do. So I took your advice to heart and here I am now in Hampton Roads, Virginia. As I am one day from leaving on December 16th, 1907 there is no returning home now, so I hope you were right about me trusting your great advice and wisdom.
Love your grandson
James
Dear Mom and Dad,
I still wanted you all to know that that I am doing fine in the navy so far and I am glad that i stuck with Grandpa's advice about doing this because I have come to like being out at sea. We are stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii you would think that it would be nice here but from a sailors view here it is not fun because all we are doing i stopping for coal to refuel. The worst thing about the ship is the amount of heat coming from the lower portion of the coaling room of the ship. The heat is almost unbearable during the hot months. Other than that everything has been fine so far.
Love your son,
James
Dear Family,
This month was the first somewhat dangerous part of this trip so far that I have been through yet. Last week before went came to Auckland, New Zealand the ship ran straight into the middle of a typhoon. It was very frightening to be caught in such a big storm, but I kept faith in my captain, ship, and fellow sailors to get us through the storm alive. We had managed to get through the storm fine with almost no damage and we thought it was a miracle. I hope that this will be the last of these storms.
Love your son and brother,
James
Dear Family,
I am writing to you all so soon again because I could not wait to tell about the amazing sight of Sydney, Australia. We were greeted at night on August 20th, by boats to guide or way to the harbor when we pulled up to the harbor we were greeted by so many people it was overwhelming. I could not believe my eyes when i saw all of the people holding signs and waving flags to greet us as we pulled in. They had seemed so enthusiastic to see us there.
Love,
James
http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/A%20GWF%20set%20of%20Photos/Asian%20Deplomacy/Japan/American_Pacific_Squadron-Minnesota.jpg
Dear Mom and Dad,
I was hoping not to send you another letter like this but we ran right into another huge storm on the way to Japan this time. This one frightened me more than the last one because we ended up losing one fellow soldier in a another boat. But other than that we are fine and now we arrived in japan on October 19th. Japan is full of small shops with beautiful silk items that i will be bringing home with me with some of the money that I have made so far.
Dear Family,
We have now gone through Japan the place I was most worried about going to and now moving on the China. Our boat met up with Chinese boat called the Fei-ying, to greet us to Amoy Hrabor. The Chinese were very inviting with offering a dinner for our captian to eat with their Prince. So far we ahve not had any mishaps since the storms near Japan and hope not to encounter anymore.
Love,
James
Dear Grandpa,
I wanted to thank you for your great advice on going to the navy again. This has been a wonderful experience for me so far. If you had not told me this who knows what I would be doing with my life. And i know understand to why I should always follow you're advice this was the best decision of my life. We are now in Colombo, Ceylon. This place has been the only place with out very much welcoming but just another coaling place.
Love
James
Dear Family,
We have now entered the Mediterranean and are in Athens, Greece on January 11th. We were one of the very few ships that were able to enter the Harbor because it was so difficult to get in and out of. Most ships had to break up an go to the smaller ports so all the ships could fit. This will be our second to last trip and then we will be heading home to states. I can not wait to see the entire family, I have missed everybody so much.
Love
James
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