Larrouy, Maurice

Maurice's name appears nowhere in the book. he is credited at the time merely as "Y." It's a collection of letters, one half of an exchange between two men each serving in WWI aboard a different ship. We are left with only one half presumably because one of the ships was sunk. The reciprocated letters went down with him. It's all public domain now. You can get this book "the Odyssey of a Torpedoed transport" free here.

"They were exhausted. Some of them almost died, they were spitting blood. And as they were cold, bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs had set in. The only physician they had was Fourges, which means none at all. As a remedy he gave them rum in hot water, for our medicine chest had soon been emptied. Three of them died, which is not many, say the officers. We threw them overboard into the Atlantic with a sack of coal at their feet to make them sink."

Maurice had a gift for nearly awkward understatement. In an odd way that communicated many of the things that were otherwise left unsaid. Turn of the century British writing is usually very stiff, even dull or drab. these are personal letter and they have a more informal feel that helps keep the truth poignant.