It was understood that no specific
obligation rested upon any member of the party to write of what he saw:
he was asked simply to observe and then, with discretion, use his
observations for his own guidance and information in future writing.
In fact, each member was explicitly told that much of what he would see
could not be revealed either personally or in print.
The party embarked in August amid all the attendant secrecy of war
conditions. The steamer was known only by a number, although later it
turned out to be the White Star liner, _Adriatic_. Preceded by a
powerful United States cruiser, flanked by destroyers, guided overhead
by observation balloons, the _Adriatic_ was found to be the first ship
in a convoy of sixteen other ships with thirty thousand United States
troops on board.
It was a veritable Armada that steamed out of lower New York harbor on
that early August morning, headed straight into the rising sun. But it
was a voyage of unpleasant war reminders, with life-savers carried
every moment of the day, with every light out at night, with every
window and door as if hermetically sealed so that the stuffy cabins
deprived of sleep those accustomed to fresh air, with over sixty army
men and civilians on watch at night, with life-drills each day, with
lessons as to behavior in life-boats; and with a fleet of eighteen
British destroyers meeting the convoy upon its approach to the Irish
Coast after a thirteen days' voyage of constant anxiety.
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