Troops, 10,893; 55th Infantry; 56th Infantry; 20th Machine Gun Battalion; 36th Div. Displacement Det.; 111th Trench Motor Battery; 88th Div. School Det.; July Auto Replacement Draft; Colonel W. O. Johnson, 56th Inf.
For the first time in the history of the ship we now traveled with other transports—the Great Northern and Northern Pacific, sister ships from the Pacific coast. These could speed along with us only in smooth water. In turbulent seas they dropped rapidly astern. The Great Northern reached New York one hour ahead of the Leviathan on one trip, but traveled 100 miles less to do so.
One of our latest destroyers accompanied the convoy for the next twenty-four hours and then the three ships traveled unescorted, in beam-to-beam formation. The weather remained fair for the first four days during which time usual abandon ship drills were held.
On the fifth day, however, we had some rough experiences. A storm broke, the waves rolled high and beat the ships fiercely. It was mid-summer and we were in the Gulf Stream yet the storm was a “whopper.” To add to the excitement the Northern Pacific reported “man overboard,” by a signal from her bridge. Immediately all three ships went into manœuvering formation and circled around the spot. The man overboard was a soldier. It was suicide with him though, for he left a letter of explanation. While circling around in an attempt to pick him up another man from the Northern Pacific went overboard. This was an unfortunate accident. Life buoys were dropped into the high-rolling seas for the lost men, and for an hour and a half we manœuvered around in an attempt to pick these men up, but it was useless. No one could stay afloat in that sea. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern both reported that they could make little headway and finally when the search for the missing men was given up we found it necessary to reduce speed so that the other ships in our convoy could remain in line with us.
The destroyers were picked up on the morning of August 10th and we passed through the war zone without trouble or excitement and anchored in Brest at 10 A. M., August 11th.
Forty-eight hours later we were steaming on our westbound voyage again, the Great Northern and Northern Pacific being with us. The weather was fine and we made good speed. On the 14th, at 9 A. M., a submarine was sighted on our starboard quarter between our ship and the Northern Pacific, but it was not fired at, nor did it attempt to do any damage. It might have been a submarine of the Allies. The destroyers left us this same evening and with fair weather and smooth seas, which were fully appreciated, we made Ambrose Channel on August 20th and docked soon afterwards.
Eighth Overseas Voyage
The following is an extract copy of the readings in the ship’s log upon our leaving New York for the eighth trip overseas. This was on the 31st of August and for the second time the transports Great Northern and Northern Pacific accompanied us.