Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1919 — Tames “Outlaw” Ship [ARTICLE]

Tames “Outlaw” Ship

Youngest Commander in Navy z. Performs Feat. “Crankiest Ship Afloat" Comes to Be Real Peaceable Army Transport., i San Francisco.—The “devils” have been cast out of the good ship Great Northern.’ Chastened by the grim spectacle of war, In which she nobly “did her bit” by transporting 60,000 Yankee soldiers across the Atlantic,- the one-time “crankiest ship afloat” came back home a few days ago, obedient to the hand of the youngest commander in the United States navy. A He is Charles H. Porta, born in Turin, Italy, thirty-four years ago. His father is Prof. Albert E*. Porta, archaeologist, scientist and sun-spot observer.

“A ship is just like a grand opera prima donna,” he says. “She needs a bit of petting and pampering to keep her in good humor —but there's nothing uncanny about her. And when she is right—boys, how she can sing!” The Great Northern traveled more than 200,000 miles in the coastwise and Hoholulu passenger service before America entered the war. In those days she was forever “stubbing her to 6”— blundering Into pier heads, breaking her machinery and “fussing” generally. At that, she was the fleetest and sweetest craft on the western ocean. , Then Uncle Sam shouldered arms and the big “prima donna” of the sea donned a gray uniform and went east as a transport. Coincidentally she dropped the nonsense somewhere between San Francisco and Hoboken and never went back to look for it. From then on' she was all business. Once in the North sea the Great

Northern ran afoul of a British patrolboat and lost two of her after com•partments, but she gamely struggled into port with her cargo of. about 4,000 doughboys, spent a week in dry dock and went back to work. In all she steamed 125,000 miles between America and France during and immediately after the war. Just now she is operating as a troop ship between San Francisco and Vladivostok, but rumor says she will soon be back on the Pacific passenger rub, and that Commander Porta will continue to “skipper” her between the mainland and Hawaii.