Cleveland County herald., 1921-01-06
4a,472 MILES
 ON ONE VOYAGE
 0F BIC THRILLS
The President Grant, Army Transport, Back in Brooklyn
 After Nine Months.
SAILED IN MANY CLIMBS
Encountered Fire, Storms, Death, Birth. and Strange Adventures in Trcpcs--Experienced Every
 Danger Known to Sea.


 New York.-rShore-staying neople who sadly Wag their heads and say that the romance And adventure of tha seas went out With the clipper ships had better not eXBress their views in he presence or aty of the officers or men or the arihy transport President Grant
 For the President Grant with hor bottom full of barla acies and her cidoc coated with green moss. recently lied up at Pier 2, Army Base Brooklvn after nine nlonth yoHage of some 45,472 sea mics, in which all hands from Capt. yohn Chambers to the smallest ,T the Filipino boys got all 3ne ddVenture they desired and then |me. And Capt. Chambers may be 'said to be a good judge Of adventure. for at 10 he went to sea in a clipper ship, sailed around the world at 19 as boson of another sailing ship, and has seen many strange things and tight squeaks in forty years at sea.
 It would be impossible to sum up the doings of the President Grant and Der men on the long voyage, equal to almost twice the distance around ehe globe. but they went through fire, storm. sudden death, births. arctic cold and tropic heat. men overheard, parties, fights, black nights, typhoons, glassy seas and rescue at sea.
 Off for Vladivostol<.
 All of this started very prosalcally- to the men of sea-when the President Grant warped out of her pier at Hobo. ken on the afternoon of February last bound for Vladivostok, the Rus. sian port on the Japan sea. There were 365 officers and men on board, in. cIuding 20 officers and men Of the army, most of whom were of the medi- cal corps. The former liner is q vessel of 16,0T2 tons and is 599 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 he story. Captain Cham. bers was on the bridge, the chief off cer, H. L. Jones, was busy straighten- ing things out all over the ship for a long voyage, and down in the engine room Chief Engineer 4. F. Brock was grooming his 7,500 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 as 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 execu- tive officer Of ship to take his goind 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 her way over, however. for she had slowed away In her after holds 5000 tons of 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, al the entrance of the Panama Canal The port was reached after a run of eight days, and the big locomotives pulled the ship through the locks and out the other side In seven hours and twelve minutes. Eleven days and eleven hours more of steaming at the ships regular gait, which was almost always hetween eleven and twelve knots, brought her through the Golden Gate at San Francisco on Washing ton's birthday, February 22.
 Two Men Die in Fire.
 After live days here to take on coal and supplies the President Grant steamed out on the Pacific crossing. She swung out northward toward colder climes on the northern great circle route. Before she sighted land she encountered three very heavy gales during which from ships all about her she heard profane radio comments on the weather which was forcing them to lie to or steam off their courses The President Grant, how ever, was liner and she kept right ahead on her eleven knot speed re- gardless of the big swells of the mis- named Pacific Twice she halted for short periods for Chief Engineer Brooks men to make repairs in the engine room.
 While far from land fire, one of those mysterious conflagrations which break out occasionally at sea. devel' oped in hold No. l. forward There was only quantity of life preservers fin thls hold, but the dense smoke that billOwed out made things look bad, In fighting this fire Boson's Mate Edison was suffocated in the hold. Ordinary Seaman Ray went down through the choking fumes in gallant effort to save him. Both men were stifled to death. The hold was flooded and the voyage resumed
 Chance to See Strange Cities.
 Or March II the President Grant dropped anchor in Yokohama roads,