The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1920-12-25
The President Grant, Army
Transport, Back in Brooklyn
After Nine Months.
SAILED IN MANY CHIMES
Encountered Fire, Storms, Death,
Birth, and Strange Adventures in
Tropics-Experience Every
Danger Known to Sea.

New York.-Shore-stayin people
w.o sadly wag their heads and say
thu the romance and adventure of the
se,$ went out with the clipper ships
haG better not express their views in
IL. presence of any of the officers or
m"r of the army transport President
Grant.
nr the President Grant, with her
be- bm full of barnacles and her sides
c.. I'd with green moss. recently tied
W ut Pier 2, Army Base, Brooklyn,
al a nine month voyage of some
A. - sea miles, in which all hands
from Capt. John Chambers to the
sn:,lest of the Filipino boys got all
the adventure they desired, and then
so e. And Capt. Chambers may be
sad to be a good judge of adventure.
for 1T 10 he went to sea In a clipper
SIN. sailed around the world at 10
as hIsOn of another sailing ship. and
has seen many strange things and
tight squeaks in forty years at sea.
I, would be impossible to sum up
tn doings of the President Grant and
her men on the long voyage, equal
to. almost twice the distance around
TN globe, but they went through fire,
storm, sudden death, births. arctic
CO Il and tropic heat, men overheard,
pr ties, fights, black nights, typhoons,
CLASSY seas and rescue at sea.
off for Vladivostok.
All of this started very prosaically--
to the men of sea-when the President
Grant warped out of her pier at Hobo
ken on the afternoon of February 2
last bound for VladivostOk, the Rus
sian port on the Japan sea. There
were 365 officers and men on board, in.
Guiding 20 officers and men of the
army, most of whom were of the medi-
cal corps. The former liner is q vessel
of 1902 tons and is 500 feet long
Before the ship was half way across
| the Pacific the officers and crew were
! to be thankful for every ton of weight
and every foot of length, but this Is
anticipating the story. Captain Cham
Ger, H. L. Jones, was busy straighter
| ing things out all over the ship for q
long voyage, and down in the engine
room Chief Engineer A. f. Brock was
grooming his 1900 horsepower engines
for the long and trying task ahead Of
him.
Just by way of showing that a sail
or's life is not always as perfect a'
pictured, Chief Officer Jones was leav
| ing behind his bride of one month
He was happy that he had the noun
tain of work that falls to the eW III
tive officer of ship to take his mine
off his troubles.
The primary purpose of the voyage
was to transport Czecho-Slovak troops
from VladivOstOk to Trieste, Italy
after their long, hard Russian cam
paign. The ship was not idling on he
way over, however, for she had SLOWED
away in her after holds 5000 tons o
steel rails, beams and plates, which
she was carrying for the shipping
board to japanese ports.
Fine weather and smooth seas at
tended the first leg of the passage
down the American coast to Colon, a
the entrance of the Panama Canal
The port was reached after a run 0
eight days, and the big locomotive
pulled the ship through the locks an,
out the other side in seven hours ant
twelve minutes. Elevel. days an,
eleven hours more of steaming at tn
ships regular gait, which was almOs
always between eleven and twelv
knots, brought her through the GOlde
Gate at San Francisco on Washing
toms birthday, February %.
After five days here to take on Goa