The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1917-07-05
FIRST UNITED STATES
UNDER CONVOY
Every Move Up to Time Of De-
parture Was Marked by
the Utmost Secrecy

n N Atlantic Port, -- -, 1917.-1
n the cold, before dawn sea driz
zle they stole away this morn.
ing. A fleet of great transports. bear.
ing the flower of Americas ''boys in
blue to join General Pershing at the
French front, slipped silently from
their docks and disappeared seward.
Ofshore a great convoy Of battleships
and deStrOyers waited in the darkness
to bear them company in the long trip
across the Atlantic to foreign shores.
Aboard, crammed in every corner,
under hatches in close hung hammocks
above decks. were the soldiers COM
prising many regiments Reports show
that units came from every quarter of
the United States. All are sunburned.
seasoned regulars-picked men-not a
single rookie in the ranks, and veter-
ans Of Mexican campaigns.
Men clung from decks and rigging
like a swarm Of khaki clad flies. Sail
ors and marines took the black gang
ways on the run in the urgent bust
ness of casting off. Field guns lay in
the holds; aeroplanes were packed on
upper decks; automobiles and motor
trucks formed another item; some
where beneath matches a great con-
signment of collins completed the list.
The president has ordained that Amer
lean dead shall be brought home ten
derby.
No warning signs betrayed the de-
parture to sinister watchers. Ghostly
tugs dashed in from the navy yard
Flying Dutchmen cutters. loaded with
spectral guards, appeared from no.
where and as ineXplicably vanished.
Red fare lights made the waters about
the piers a charmed circle in which
magical craft were seen for a passing
moment. A searchlight fickered, a
haWser splashed. and the ships were
gone.
One by one they fell in line in mid
channel, while protecting boats circled
about like excited terriers. Only one
lonely green lamp in the masthead of
each ship betrayed her presence. Fog
tinted war paint blended with river
and night sky. Here a signal light
flashed Internationally; there a snatch
Of subdued song was heard across the
summer waters from a crowded deck.
plaintive farewell to the homeland.
Ships Names Painted Out.
The last tranSpOrt-names were care
fully painted out and lines disguised
by false rigging-joined the procession
For moment her outlines were clear
against the pail of light and smoke
that hung above the piers as over the
mouth of some titan furnace Then
she became an indistinct mass in the
shadows Of midstream
Propellers thrashed with rhythmic
joy. the thrill that every ship must
feel after three weary years of river
tides and chatting docks and war sad
dened sailors or longer period Of pro-
sale commerce. Now it is the sea, the
open sea, with winds and cold, cold
waves and perhaps a mad flight from
u boat. The foremost of the fleet
role. Suddenly she raised her voice in
a great, hoarse, throaty roar.
The brazen note died away, echoed
back from some distant skyscraper.
invaded the rooms Of sleeping millions
sleeping while the army called last
farewell--and vanished. So did the
ships.
The sound reached back to the piers
AS if struck over the head vast army
of stevedores and commissariat troops
dropped to the nearest corner in dead
sleep from a thirty hour stretch of
final prepare tons. Blackened mechan-
les snored in sweaty jeans. Drowsy
officers staggered into waiting automo-
biles.
1t is days since romance and mys-
terry and the war came to the point of
embarkation. In those days troop
trains began to pour into the railroad
yards. Men in khaki swarmed over
the town.
Who they were and where bound
could not be learned. Vast crowds of
townspeople collected where the new
trainloads arrived daily. In the yards
a few of the boys pitched tents and
settled down to comfortable camp
life. Less fortunate regiments spent
from seven to ten days in the railroad
yards.
No Fires In the Yards.
For six days the soldiers lay about
the sWeltering cars, playing cards or
lying on the aisle floor. Negro porters
rose to the occasion by organizing a
minstrel band with guitars and ban
Jos. A certain southern regiment re-
garded this company as their private
property, but generously lent the .serv-
ices of pullman Pete" Soggerty and
his "black banjo band' to other troops,
At night the men descended from
the cars to sit about the cinder patches
between the tracks. No fires may be
built in the yards. Nevertheless a
very fair imitation of a camp fire was
made by placing a score of oil lamps
together. About this the troopers sat
and sang and wrote letters
The order to move generally came
at night, with twenty minutes notice