Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Anne Hitchcock Sims, 6/29/1918

Documentary Histories

WWI

Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Anne Hitchcock Sims

[Extract]

The Carlton, London,

Saturday, June 29, 1918

My precious Nani:

I came back from Queenstown on Thursday and found an unusual amount of work and correspondence that has kept me very busy ever since. So busy that it was apparent that I was not going to have time to write you a real letter with a pen; so this afternoon I dictated quite a long letter to Miss Thompson for the next mail, which leaves tomorrow.1 . . . I do not enjoy being in the limelight. However, I have nothing to complain of. Everything is going as well as could be expected, the navy enjoys a good reputation here and at home, and I am in my usual perfect health:

There is a sort of mild influenza going the rounds of the armies and navies, but it lasts but a few days. About 25 or 30 of the office force are home with it now, and possibly most of them will have it in time.2 I am so very well and strong that I hope to escape. . . .

Your devoted

Will

Source Note: ALS, DLC-MSS, William S. Sims Papers, Box 10.

Footnote 1: See: Sims to Anne Sims, first letter of 29 June 1918.

Footnote 2: Lillian Thompson, who Sims’ biographer calls “his English secretary” who “took most of his letters to his family, for he had little time to write longhand.” Morison, Admiral Sims: 425.

Footnote 3: While this outbreak of influenza was not the epidemic that killed millions, it was more lethal than Sims portrays it here. See: Hugh Rodman to Josephus Daniels, 29 June 1918.

Naval History and Heritage Command