Page:Christian Science War Time Activities.djvu/180

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR

Welfare II was 46 feet long, with a beam of 14 feet and a draft of 5 feet. Her engine was a 3-cylinder, 2-cycle Kahlenberg, of 27 horsepower. She had four rooms, with a galley forward under deck, containing oil stoves, water tanks and a full set of cooking utensils. There were also berths for two men in the galley. Next came the pilot house, then the engine room. The cabin was well furnished with rugs, easy-chairs, a desk and berths. Welfare II was used for the naval work in and about Hampton.

Not long after Welfare I was purchased, the Worker wrote:

“You will be interested to know that the launch is becoming increasingly useful. Last night she carried an officer across the river after the ferry had stopped running for the night. Today, while I was aboard one of the battleships I noticed that the recreation party that was bound for the shore could not all get into the ship's launches. There were about forty very disappointed boys. One of them was a Scientist to whom I had been talking. I asked him what was the trouble and he said that they were only allowed three hours on shore and that he and the rest of the forty would lose most of that time because they would have to wait until the launches made a return trip, about three miles each way. I went to the officer of the deck and offered the use of our launch. He took the matter up with the Captain who accepted with thanks, and in a few minutes the whole forty were on board arriving very shortly after the first party. Going over I gave each boy a copy of the Monitor to read. I might add that in the party was the ship's baseball team and they commented highly on the Sporting page of the Monitor. ‘Henry’ in the camp sometimes used to carry eight or nine boys but his sister ‘Henrietta’ has him beaten. She is ‘some jitney’ according to the boys.”

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