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Transcribed by Penny Seacord , [email protected]

James Graham Farrow's last letter from Dunkirk to his son Welton in Portland, Me., Feb 19 1916

James Graham Farrow (4 Apr 1856 - 13 July 1916). James had his captain's papers by 1903, and owned a schooner, Eva May. In 1906 he sold the schooner and took up a homestead in Sakatchewan. In 1912 the family returned to PEI.

The letter was opened by censor No 3208. It was written in France 19 Feb 1916, mailed in England 13 March 1916 and received by Welton Farrow 30 March 1916. Welton was living at 185 (appears to be) Gravett St, Portland, Maine.

Dunkirk France Feb 19th 1916

Dear Welton
I have been thinking a long time of writing to you boys, but I did not know which of you to write to. I am here in France. I had charge of a schr. and when I laid her up in Pictou. I got a job in this steamer as second mate and it is a good job with a little more wages than on the schr., so I took it. I got $50.00 a month on the schr and get $55.00 here. That I think is better than paying my board all winter. This boat intended going back to Can. in July but now they intend staying. If they want me to stay I think I will stay by her for some time. It is a sure thing. Here we get paid every month but if I want to leave they would pay my way back to Canada when the six months is up. I joined her on 27 Dec. There is a third mate and boaston. This steamer is build of iron. She was built for the lakes, she is slow and ugly but a good monthly boat. We got in here last sunday night. This is saturday night and nothing done at discharging yet. It will take about five days to discharge her so I expect we will have tomorrow and another sunday here. I am writing this here but I will not mail it till I get to England - Middesbury - that is on the East side of England. I believe they open the letters here and if they found Dunkirk on it they would not send it. How is your feet? The Germans make two raids on Dunkirk since we came here. One bomb fell on a waggon of coal about 100 yards from our ship on sunday. I was up town at the time. One made a raid this tuesday morning. They fired a lot of shots at him but he got away. I have lerned the Morse code signeling the ships use it a great deal after night. It is easy to learn. There is just two signals the short and the ong - --- the short is about one second and the long is three seconds and one second between the flashes. Excuse me for writing such a long letter. I wont write so long letter yours with love

Father

The following was printed in the New York Times, p. 2, column 6.

U-BOAT ATTACKS FISHERMEN
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Sinks two trawlers off Northeast Coast of England. London July 13--Following the attack by a German submarine on the British port of Seaham Harbor on Tuesday night, a submarine raid on fishing near the English coast was reported by Lloyd's today. A German submarine attacked a British fishing fleet off the northeastern coast and sank the trawlers Florence and Dalhousie and several smaller vessels.