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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Diary of Quartermaster Carroll Bayne

[Extract]

. . . 6th. Left Penzance. Night very dark. We have in the convoy, besides the four destroyers, the steamers Houston, Evangeline, Montanan, and two others. The Clan Cummings was to have come with us, but joined the British convoy which left half an hour ahead of us. She was torpedoed at 8 P.M. She was the biggest ship in the whole flock and was right in the middle of sixty-five other vessels. How the Germans do it, I can’t see. We had a scare this morning when the Evangeline hit something, either a mine or a wreck, or a submarine, or a torpedo. We dashed around and stirred things up, but there was no explosion or disturbance in the water. We proceeded to Saint-nazaire and anchored safely. . . . had a great fight on board. The “Spic” cook1 got into an argument with one of the firemen and it was some set to. The cook drew a knife which Dave Tibbott snatched away from him. The skipper2 took a hand and he surely had a full head of steam.

Source Note Print: Ralph D. Paine, The Corsair in the War Zone (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920), 137-138. Entry dates to 6 November 1917. Extract dots are featured in the publication.

Footnote 1: “Spic,” is a pejorative term for individuals of Spanish descent. The cook on the Corsair was Warrant Cook V. De Amersolo.

Footnote 2: Seaman David Tibbot and Cmdr. Theodore A. Kittinger.

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