These of the party who really wished the expedition well, were so utterly hated that an effort was made to maroon a number of them at the first intangible thing on paper, was to give the warring nations mental science treatment. Ford himself at the outset had unbounded faith in his ability. Despite the statement attributed to him that he intended to "get the boys out of the trenches by Christiandom," he did not count on immediately ending the war.
What Ford did believe was that he could "make a dent" by gathering about him a whole ship's company, uniting the member's minds on one "big thought of peace" and continually adding to the volume and intensity of this thought as he and his try to neutral country, on the edge of the zone of war, or even in the zone itself.
Whether this plan would have succeeded under favorable circumstances can't be stated, because the peace delegates failed to concentrate on thoughts of peace. The Oscar IPs voyage from New York to Christiania was horrible, not so much because of the incessant quarreling as on account of the atmosphere of suspicion and malice after the first day or two out. 