These are excerpts from a cassette tape recorded sometime in 1972 when my grandfather was visiting Rockville, MD. Unfortunately, there is a good deal of noise, mostly from handling the microphone, which I have not been able to eliminate, although I have reduced it considerably. Also, some of the material seems to have been recorded over, so the narrative starts in the middle.
W. Day Boyer, known to my family as Papa, was born July 11, 1888, and served in WWI. He was wounded in action on November 1, 1918 in France, for which the Marine Corps. awarded him the Purple Heart in 1945. He died on May 15, 1981.
In the first segment, Papa describes traversing a cave where the locals grew mushrooms, and apparently also stored wine.
1972_Papa_01_CaveInFrance.mp3 5.5M 05:58
In the second segment, he recounts events aboard the USS Von Steuben, formerly the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German passenger liner used by the Germans during WWI. After running low on coal and supplies, the German crew began to show signs of scurvy, and were forced into the nearest neutral port, arriving in Virginia in April of 1915, before the US entered the war. When the US did enter the war, she was seized and renamed the Von Steuben, after a German born hero of the American Revolution. Papa relates the story of another soldier who was stationed in the engine room of the Von Steuben and apparently thinks one of the smoke stacks is a dummy, perhaps installed to keep the Germans from recognizing their own ship. This is not correct, as early pictures of the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm show it with 4 stacks, just as the Von Steuben had.
1972_Papa_02_AboardShip.mp3 9.6M 10:25
The third segment recounts his arrival back home in the US.
1972_Papa_03_ArrivalInUS.mp3 6.0M 06:31
Here is a photo of Ralph Outland, his wife, children, and another visitor, taken by Papa. The second segment starts with a visit to Outland's house.
And here are photos of Papa graduating, and later in life.
