A company officer would go into the compartment being filled and assist the Navy detail; troops got into their bunks as soon as found, and stayed there until embarkation over that gangway was completed. No smoking was allowed in compartments. Without strict adherence to these rules, embarkation was hindered. Generally it was possible to take troops aboard nearly as fast as they arrived on the dock and many times the dock would be emptied before the next organizations would arrive. The troop mess hall on F-deck was used as a reservoir to hold over 1,000 troops marching in a serpentine line which proceeded into the compartments being filled. The Naval officer in charge of the gangway circulated from the gangway over the route into the compartment and saw that all went smoothly. The embarkation officer moved around all gangways into compartments being filled and upon the deck, generally overseeing and directing embarkation.
The Navy men for the forward gangway were from the first division, midship gangways from the third division and the other gangways from the fourth division. With the inborn aptitude of the American youth, they soon became experts in embarking and made short work of filling compartments. There was little change in the details during the entire war period. The men took real pride in their work. Embarkation of 10,000 troops, each soldier into his own numbered bunk, could not have been effected in a period of six to eight hours, if it had not been for the zeal and ardor and intelligence which the men put into their work.
Whenever a bunk was found which could not be used and compartments were checked over before embarkation, the ticket was taken up from the soldier and another secured at the gangway so the man could occupy a bunk in the vicinity of his company.
Relations between the ship’s officers concerned with embarking and the army officers of the port of embarkation staff were harmonious and co-operation grew as trips increased. On some occasions the ship’s officers went to the army camps, gave talks and distributed ship’s pamphlets in advance of embarkation which were of assistance in embarking and getting the army settled on board.
On these war time embarkations, one noted the eagerness with which the troops came aboard to get to the scene of war. On one occasion a number of colored troops went up E-deck gangway, which had an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, upon their hands and knees for safety’s sake. This caused great laughter.
Only on one or two embarkations were there any substantial delays, as trains and ferries generally arrived on schedule. Once an entire regiment was fitted up with two pairs of trench shoes upon the upper level of the dock. During the influenza epidemic in the fall of 1918 taking the temperatures of all troops slowed up embarkation.
Debarkations
During the war, debarkation on the first two trips to Liverpool was simply to march the troops over the G-deck forward, F-deck amidships, and G-deck after gangways on the landing stage in reverse order of embarkation, where they mustered by organizations and entrained. On the third trip to Liverpool, in November, 1918, the Leviathan ran her nose into the Mersey mud off the Gladstone dock in a heavy fog. The tide ebbed and the ship began to list. All the Mersey ferry boats were commandeered and the 8,000 troops were debarked on them from F-deck gangway amidships and G-deck gangway aft, in three hours. Gangways to the ferries in several cases were at an angle of sixty degrees. Debarkation was rushed to lighten the ship, and she was backed off on the rising tide that evening under her own power.