---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Ray, Viva Huish
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 7
published: 1917-05
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Viva Huish Ray, "The Great White Fleet," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 7 (May 1917): 603.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2007unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2007unse
start_page: 603
end_page: 603
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-05)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2007unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Great White Fleet

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<!-- Source heading: The Great White Fleet. -->



Great  White  Fleet
Over  the  great  horizon  line,
Where  the  star-gem'd  sky  and  the  waters  meet;
All  in  the  hush  of  the  silent  night,
Like  white-souled  birds  in  an  endless  flight-
Gleam  the  sails  of  a  Great  White  Fleet!
Up  from  the  war-spoiled  wreck  they  rise,
From  the  tangled  depth  of  the  seaward  spray;
And  they  sigh  as  they  loosen  their  sails  to  the  wind,
For  they  leave  the  mouldering  hulks  behind,
As  the  spirit  leaveth  the  clay.
And  each,  as  it  passes,  the  same  story  breathes
Of  a  ship-builder's  dream,  of  their  country's  need,
Of  the  wasted  labor  of  skill-taught  hands;
Builded  for  naught  but  the  wanton  demands
Of  that  hate-breeding  monster  of  greed.
One  met  her  fate  as  a  warrior  brave,
Honoring  the  dead  sovereign's  name  she  bore;
One,  human-lade,  bound  for  country  and  home,
Unsuspecting  of  harm  when  she  sank  neath  the  foam
Near  Erin's  sun-kiss'd  shore.
Oh,  never  before  such  a  motley  fleet
Cast  its  shadows  athwart  in  the  darkling  deep:
From  the  tiniest  craft  to  the  white  Liner-Star
And  the  stealthy  'marine  and  the  bold  man-of-war;
While  the  pale  stars  their  benisons  keep.
And  ever  they  pass  o'er  that  mystical  line
Where  the  waters  of  earth  and  eternity  meet;
And  onward  they  glide  to  the  harbor  of  Peace,
And  there,  till  the  war-waging  conflict  shall  cease,
Shall  be  waiting  that  Great  White  Fleet.
Provo,  Utah.  Viva  Huish  Ray.