The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-31
BRINGS LAST YANKS
FROM ST. NAZAIRE
Kroonland Arrives With 8,642
From Port Now Handed
Back to France.
TRANSMITS MAN AT SEA
Injured Boatswain Is Taken
From Freighter, but Dies
After Operation.
TRANSMITS MAN AT SEA

st. Nazaire, whence thousands OF
dcughboys have departed for home, went
back into possession of the French when
the transport Kroonland. in yesterday
sailed July 10 with 3,642 officers and
men. Her departure with the last Of the
American Expeditionary Force stationed
at st. Nazaire was marked by cheering
and music by French bands ashore and
the prize Yankee band OF the ocean
aboard the Kroonland.
Three French and three American
warships accompanied the transport five
miles out to sea. Nearing midocean the
Kroonland received a wireless message
from the freighter Wheaton, under char
ter to the Red Star line, the original own
ers Of the Kroonland, asking for medical
advice for Boatswain James Tinney,
who had fallen from aloft and was Sc
verely injured. Cargo carriers do not
carry doctors and in prewireless times
shippers were supposed to know enough
about medicine ana surgery to attend
to Ill or injured men of the crew. But
nowadays surgeons may be had on any
of the big feet of transports still in SER
vice and they are glad to help shippers
who lack doctors
Lieutenant Commander Whitmore of
the Navy Medical Corps took position
near the wireless operator OF the Kroon-
land and learned that the Wheaton's
boatswain had a badly fractured leg, in
ternal injuries and other hurts. The
Wheaton's skipper was told what to do,
and then, as the patient appeared to
grow worse. the Kroonland made an ap-
pointment to meet the Wheaton in mid
ocean July 23 and take the boatswain
aboard. The Kroonland got to the POSI-
ton first and soon the freighter hove in
sight over the horizon. A choppy sea
did not bother the bluejackets of the
transport and they soon had the boat
swain aboard. An operation was swiftly
performed. but the patient died several
hours later from shock.
The Kroonland brought thirteen wal
brides, three married to officers When
they went ashore at Hoboken Band.
master Ciccone's crack players inspired
them to keep step to a wedding marcn,
in which one of the drummers, with a
whistlelike device, gave an amusing iml-
tation of crying baby. Two of the
brides carried babies.
Michael Bourdain, a French boy of
IA, in doughboy attire, came as the
protege of Quartermaster Sergeant A.
H. Murphy, who will ae- pt him. Michael
Is slight and small for his age, but re-
markably alert, and has a good working
knowledge Of several languages includ-
ing the American. He met the dough-
boys of the Fifty-fourth Coast Artillery
at his little town on the Loire in October,
1918, and attached himself to them as
welfare adviser. showing them where to
buy good things cheaply and what to
avoid. also acting as interpreter for
Major Roe, commanding the unit. Finally
1t was decided that Michael should be
paid for his services as Interpreter, and
he began with a modest salary which
got to $50 francs a month before he de-
cided to come to America with Sergeant
Murphy, whom he met after he had been
assigned to interpret for the United
States Quartermaster's Headquarters at
Anglers.
Michael is addicted to philosophy. In
explaining the insignia of the Sphinx on
his collar he said in pretty fair Ameri-
canese that he had no doubt that it had
been selected because everybody thought
the Sphinx looked so silent 1t was wise,
and that the opinion of most people was
that the less a person talked the more
other persons thought he knew. AS for
himself, he talked very little except
when he was interpreting, and he sup
posed that people might think that he
also knew much, but the fact was that
he did not know much at all, but hoped
that he might know more after he had
been in America some time with his kind
sergeant. Michael gave all his monthly
wages except five francs to his mother,
establishing her as a shopkeeper. The
mother willingly permitted 'r sergeant
to adopt him, so he might ,.,. up to be
a fine American.