Colombo, Ceylon

"The Weather is Most Delightful"

At Sea

December 7^th, 1908

Lat 3,03.N  Long 100.44.E

Dear Papa,

We are now about to pass out of the Straits of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean.  We passed by Singapore yesterday and I was able to get a fairly good view of it though my glasses.  The inhabitants like those of the Island of Trinidad, took the passing of the fleet through the Straits as an every day event and nobody came out to see us except a few officials and some Americans.  One woman whom I noticed in particular had a small megaphone through which she called to each ship, declaring that she wanted to go back to “Old Broadway” and that she wanted to go home.  The Connecticut fired a twenty one gun salute and it was returned by a battery on shore.

 All the way from Manila the weather has been most delightful and tonight the moon is shining brightly down upon the waters, as we go streaming along, every turn of the screws taking us nearer to the Old U.S.A.

Enclose a set of views of a ship of the Virginia class taken during the typhoon which we encountered during the trip to Japan.  In the large pictures the black part of the hull, ordinarily is never out of the water.

At the present rate we are traveling we will arrive in Colombo ahead of the schedule time, however I will be able to tell you more definitely when I finish this at the above mentioned city.

Colombo, Ceylon

December 15^th, 1908

Dear Papa,

We are now at anchor in the harbor of Colombo, lying behind the finest breakwater that we have seen this cruise.

More anon-

On the eighth of December as we were passing through the end of the Straits we had quite a rescue scene from this ship.  Two men were lost overboard from the USS Rhode Island which was the fourth ship ahead of us, the three ships ahead lowered their life-boats and we also lowered ours, the man was passing by our ship as we lowered the boat and we were just in time to get him.  The other fellow must have hit his head on the armor belt of some other part of the Rhode Island side as he was not seen after he passed the second ship from the R.I.

Altogether the trip from Manila to this port was a most delightful one, interspersed with beautiful moonlight nights.  The mail brought me three letters from you, dated Oct. 23^rd, Nov. 17^th, and Nov. 4^th.  All of which I was very glad to get, also got a letter from Mr. Clendenin, and the papers from home giving all the election news, also the Putnam magazine.  Received a Xmas and New Years card from Mr. and Mrs. Brewer addressed to me at Colombo.

Have not been able to see Harry Lesher on the Kearsarge as the men of the fleet do very little visiting, as after a days work they feel more like taking it easy than to visit around.

The sun rises about six-thirty and sets about six pm.

You must have had a most enjoyable time at Fredericksburg, Md. Taking in the battle-field and monument exercises.

I did not get any China shawl for Mrs. Ramsey, but suppose I can scrape up some thing to give her out of my assortment.  Will use some of the Xmas stickers and gave some away to my friends as you suggested.  I will certainly take in the Sanatorium when I get home.  I thought about Fusi Tsukimoto, when we were in Japan, but did not know in what part of the Empire she lived.  I remember her very well, and the chop sticks that she gave to us.

Am going ashore tomorrow and 74 miles inland to visit the capitol of the Island “Kandy” and will tell you more about it in the next letter.  Sent you some cards with pictures of the city upon them.

Upon the arrival of the fleet outside of the breakwater we had to split up and wait until the pilots could come out and take us in as there are only six pilots in the corps.  It took the greater part of the day to anchor us inside the sea-wall, and we certainly helped to swell the number ships in the harbor, which at all times is a busy one.

A pair of wooden elephants that Frank lesher brought back from Kandy, Ceylon

Grand Oriential Hotel

Colombo, Ceylon

Colombo is a city of 200,000 people.  The principal exports of the Island being precious stones, tea, spices, coconut oil, and other tropical products.  The inhabitants are the native Singhalese, and a number of Parsees, Tamils, and Malays, and a mixed population of Dutch, English and Portuguese.

Each day the fakers come out to the ships with their stones, fruit, post-cards, ebony boxes, snakes, and other merchandise.  They can do business where a Jew would have to give up in despair, and try to sell you all sorts of bad stones.  Don’t think I’ll invest.

The weather is most delightful, and there is a cool breeze blowing all the day.  We coaled ship yesterday and took aboard eleven-hundred tons which will run us to Suez together of course with what we have now.  Will Close for this time, and will write in several days informing you of what I saw on my trip.

Love to Mother,

Affectionately, Frank

Colombo, Ceylon

December 18^th, 1908

Dear Papa,

Was ashore on Wednesday and went up to Kandy, tomorrow I expect to take in the sights of Colombo.  We landed at seven thirty o’clock, the train of ten English rail-road coaches was waiting for us at the dock, everybody climbed aboard and we started on the most interesting ride I have ever made.

Passing through the suburbs of the city we were soon in the forests of Ceylon, with tropical verdure and plants of all descriptions, here and there could be seen the huts of the natives made of mud walls and a palm leaf thatching for a roof. 

The natives wear very few clothes and may children run naked until they are four and five years old.  We passed through miles of coconut, mango, and banana trees, while acres of tea and rice fields could we be seen on every side.  Before we reached the mountains we could see the rice being raised in level fields, but when we reached the mountain side we found them still raising crop, but instead of the level fields the little plots rose in terrace after terrace to the height of several hundred feet, the water from the top gradually working down through the different levels until it reached the bottom.

Passed by one of the Lipton tea gardens and I could see the natives picking the leaves which we consume in the USA and all parts of the world.

The highest elevation reached was seventeen hundred feet from thence we descended down to the town of Kandy which has an altitude of about sixteen hundred feet, and is 64 miles from Colombo.

At Left:  Limpton Tea Pickers on a card from Frank

At Right:  Kandy from across the Lake

Temple of the Holy Tooth

 I  was taken though the temple and saw the closed doors behind which the tooth is kept.  So they say???

I have oftenheard it said that India was a land of beggars, but I never fully realized the fact until I landed in Kandy, everywhere you went beggars and cripples of all descriptions surrounded you and almost grabbed the money out of your hands.  There were men with their arms and legs cut off, which had been healed up with the aid of the native doctors, leaving the most horrible sights imaginable, blind men who could see at times, and at other times could not.  Women with little children laying on board platforms, twisted up onto the awfullest shapes that one could think of, and lots of Lepers. 

They have several fine hotels, in which the Europeans could be seen taking life easy and watching the way in which the American sailor enjoys life when ashore.

The Singhalese always address you as “master”, having always in mind that it was the English who conquered them and made them their subjects.  Of the Dutch and Portuguese, who had possession of the Island before the British little remains to show that they once possessed the land.

At Right:  Entrance to the Peredeniya Gardens, Kandy

Coming back in the evening we could see the huts of the natives though the palm trees, and see them huddled around the fire built in the center of the room.  It takes about four hours to go up to Kandy and about three and a half to come back.

We arrived back on the ship about eight pm, tired but happy.  Will describe what I was in Colombo while I am out at sea, and mail from the next port.

The money standard is the rupee, 33 cents American.

Love to Mother,

Affectionately,  Frank

At Sea, December 24^th, 1908

Lat. IO 48’N. Long 64 07 E

Dear Papa,

“T’ was the night before Xmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”.  How well do I remember these lines as when a boy I listened to them told over and over again.  Now I am out in the Arabian Sea, about half way across, with a daily temperature of 80 degrees, and dressed in the lightest of clothes.

We left Colombo Sunday morning at about seven o’clock and have had most delightful weather ever since.  Was ashore in Colombo on the nineteenth, getting around quite a bit.  Had a small filling put in one of my teeth by an English dentist, which cost me thirteen shillings or about thee dollars and a quarter, a job which any dentist in the states would do for a dollar.  Such is life abroad.

Took a trolley ride to the terminus of the line, the price being three cents gold.  During the ride we passed through the native shop quarter.  Saw meat hanging in front of the shops upon which, every few seconds, bug crows would come swooping down tear off a hunk, and go soaring away to devour it at their leisure.  Beggars as in other parts of the Island are to be seen in countless numbers.  At the end of the line we were besieged by about a hundred children of all ages, clamoring for money.  Here we took rikishas and were carried by the coolies through the suburbs of the city and through the European quarter.  My coolieman stopped at a bush which looked somewhat like one of our laurel bushes, broke off a branch and presented it to me telling me at the same time that it was cinnamon.  So I rode along munching green cinnamon and thinking of the times, as when at home I used to get up on the cupboard and get a piece of the dried bark out of the spice box.  Rode through Victoria Gardens, which is a fine park, to the Museum where the Ceylon products are kept, here are to be seen some very interesting sights.  On our way back in the trolley cars I had quite a conversation with a Singhalese who told me that the British were very hard on them not giving them any voice in the Government, and watching them like hawks in their dealings with them.  The natives have not use for the British at all, and would like to be free and have a government of their own, as they say.  He told me that it was his opinion, that if the English would put more dependence on the Singhalese, in their dealings with them they would not make the attempts to cheat as they do now.

There  are about fifteen-hundred regulars and Indian troops quartered in the city which is a very cleanly one.  The British hold all the important offices and all the unimportant ones that they can get men to fill them.  The two largest hotels are the Grand Oriental, and the Galle Face.  The city is furnished with good water carried in pipes from a lake 25 miles distance.

From what I observed and was informed, I take it that the fleet has left a very good impression in the Island, morally, mentally, and financially.

Will sate in closing that liberty was granted from one to six-thirty pm.

Good Night Frank