CAMP WELFARE COMMITTEE
Authority was also obtained from the British Admiralty office for the boarding of British vessels, which included a pass for the Worker.
The headquarters for the naval work at Yorktown and Hampton Roads was established at Hampton, Virginia, which served not only as an office, but as a Welfare Room for men from convoys and other ships, and for the soldiers from Langley Field and Fortress Monroe.
Transports leaving Hampton Roads docked for embarkation of troops at Newport News, Virginia, and the naval work was soon extended to these vessels. Like the Fleet, access to transports and transport docks appeared almost an impossibility, so strictly enforced were the regulations regarding civilians. The transport service, too, was under joint army and naval officials. The initial authority only permitted the placing of Monitors on board, to be distributed by a member of the ship's crew, and access to either docks or ships by our Worker was not looked upon with favor. So quickly was the value of the literature appreciated, that the Committee was soon granted an unrestricted pass to the docks and transports. This not only permitted the Worker to go on board daily with the Monitors, but gave him the unusual privilege of distributing papers and other literature, after the troops were embarked. This was the first transport work.
The largest embarkation point, however, was Hoboken, New Jersey. Here a very efficient work was accomplished. A daily distribution of the Monitor to the transports while in port was maintained, and so well did the New Jersey Committee demonstrate their way, and so grew the demand for the Monitor
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