time can carry 5,000 souls, that when the alterations were completed, it was found that each of the three ships of the Imperator class could carry 10,000 troops with their full equipment.
The work of transforming the liners that had been interned in the United States began on the day they left New York, and they were stripped and ready for the shipyard workmen by the time, seven days later, they reached the home ports. With such efficiency and dispatch was this work carried through that the second expeditionary force of 50,000 men was embarked and had sailed on or before the 28th of March. The transports carrying this force were vessels of from 20 to 23 knots' speed. Some of them sailed boldly on advertised schedules, direct for New York; the rest slipped away by night, adopting the same ruses and secrecy as the transports of the first expedition. They
