The arrival of the Great Northern at Hoboken yesterday with the last of the
Second Division abroad [sic aboard] marked her final trip as a naval transport. During the time that she has been in this service the vessel has made eighteen round trips to France, carrying 35,000 soldiers to the other side and bringing 26,000 home. The transport is to be turned over to the army for service in the Philippines.
The Great Northern docked just in time for the Second Battalion of the Second Engineers, a unit of the Second Division, to send its colors, decorated with the French war cross, to the parade. The battalion staff and a detail of one man from each company were permitted to leave Hoboken as soon as the ship docked to march with their comrades.
Among the military passengers were Maj. Gen. Charles D. Rhoades, at one time in command Of the Rainbow Division, and Captain Frank Pershing of the Ordnance, who, it was said, is a nephew of General Pershing. General Rhoades only recently recovered from injuries he received when an airplane In which he was traveling from Spa to Paris crashed.
Miss Mary E. Benton, formerly professor of Latin at Smith College, and at present dean of the women's department of Carrelton College, Northfield, Minn., a passenger, said that she had been on a mission to select French women students for American universities. She told of a trip she said she
and the Countess Turczynowitz had made Into Germany and Lithuania during the Spring. Miss Benton said that
they arrived in Munich on April 1 on the 1ast train which entered that city
before it fell into the hands of the revolutionists. Machine guns were posted everywhere in anticipation of trouble,
she said. Miss Benton declared that
she and her companion were at all times treated with courtesy by the Germans. |