develop the most vicious type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. it is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes. it is horrible. it takes special trains to carry away the dead. for several days there were no coffins and the bodies piled up something fierce. it beats any sight they had in france after a battle. good-bye, old pal, god be with you until we meet again. >> despite the alarming number of cases, servicemen from the boston naval yard continued to deploy around the country. >> those same ships from boston also went to new orleans, chicago, they went out to the west coast. every one of these port cities where boats from boston docked, the flu exploded very quickly. it was extremely, extremely virulent. the infection rate was very high, and the mortality rate was very high. >> on september 7th, 1918, a navy ship from boston arrived in philadelphia.