All 3 Uses of

embark
in
This Side of Paradise

INTERLUDE May, 1917-February, 1919 A letter dated January, 1918, written by Monsignor Darcy to Amory, who is a second lieutenant in the 171st Infantry, Port of Embarkation, Camp Mills, Long Island.†
Chpt 1.4

embarkation = the process of setting off on a trip

I've enjoyed imagining that you were my son, that perhaps when I was young I went into a state of coma and begat you, and when I came to, had no recollection of it...it's the paternal instinct, Amory—celibacy goes deeper than the flesh.... Sometimes I think that the explanation of our deep resemblance is some common ancestor, and I find that the only blood that the Darcys and the O'Haras have in common is that of the O'Donahues...Stephen was his name, I think.... When the lightning strikes one of us it strikes both: you had hardly arrived at the port of embarkation when I got my papers to start for Rome, and I am waiting every moment to be told where to take ship.†
Chpt 1.4

** EMBARKING AT NIGHT Amory moved forward on the deck until he found a stool under an electric light.†
Chpt 1.4 *

embarking = leaving on a trip

Definition:

to leave on a trip -- especially to board a ship