Shuhmacher, Walter N. letter - handwritten     On the first page: "813 Colorado Avenue Bridgeport, Conn. Jan. 12, 1920 Mr. W.E. Gordon Local Historian Village of Patchogue, N.Y. Dear Sir; Your request were forward[ed] to me and I take please [i.e., pleasure] in doing you those few small favors. Enclose[d] you will find a small photo and questioniser [questionaire] filled out. I regards [i.e., refer] to the items of interest which I have experienced I will try to give a few of them in a very plane [i.e., plain] manner. I sailed across on the U.S.S. Canonicus for U.S. Naval Bases seventeen and eighteen. The chief object was to lay a mine barrage from Norway to Scotland and block the U-boats from the Atlantic. We were known as the 'Suicide Fleet' or the U.S. Mine Fleet Squadron Number One. We completed our undertaking and were supposed to go to the Mediterranean Sea and mine the Adriatic Sea, but the hostilities were closed and it was called off. We had several alarms of submarines but that is not the experiences which appeals to me most. One day I was on Liberty in the little town of Inverness [Scotland]. It was a nice day, the one I have in mind, but it brought nothing to me. I was standing on the corner when I turned around and there stood Walter Hawkins. We went down by the Caledonian Canal and laid in the grass and forgot we were in the navy or that there was a war on. I paid John Behan a visit but the Officer of the Day at Base number seventeen had me escorted off as he would not permit any visitors. I [cursed] him from here to China because all I could say to John was hello and good-bye. I hold these two experiences in mind more than the hardships, wild sea rides, and the exploding of defected [i.e., defective] mines. It sure was good to see some one from the old home town. I wish you all possible success in unditaking [your undertaking] as the local historian. Respectfully, Walter Shuhmacher"     NOTES Canonicus [III] (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships) http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c2/canonicus-ii.htm Belknap, Reginald Rowan. The Yankee Mining Squadron; Or, Laying the North Sea Mine Barrage. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 1920 (Internet Archive) http://archive.org/details/yankeeminingsqu00belkgoog North Sea Mine Barrage (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Mine_Barrage Northern Barrage (Flickr.com) http://www.flickr.com/photos/doffcocker/sets/72157627699246943/detail/ -- U.S. Naval Base 17 (Invergordon) Headquarters, U.S. Naval Base 18 [Inverness] (Flickr.com) http://www.flickr.com/photos/doffcocker/6213739641/ Muirtown Basin During WWI (thecaledoniancanal.org.uk) http://www.thecaledoniancanal.org.uk/picture/number184.asp See also entry for Walter S. Hawkins