ckness, and fears of drowning like rats in a trap.

The work of the navy was far more extensive, moreover, than the safe
convoying of troop ships, important though that was. The very first
contingent of American overseas fighting forces was made up of two
flotillas of destroyers, which upon the declaration of war had been sent
to Queenstown where they were placed under the command of Admiral William
S. Sims. Their main function was to hunt submarines, which, since the
decree of the 1st of February, had succeeded in committing frightful
ravages upon Allied commerce and seriously threatened to starve the
British Isles. Admiral Sims was two years older than Pershing and as
typical a sailor as the former was soldier. With his bluff and genial,
yet dignified, manner, his rubicund complexion, closely-trimmed white
beard, and piercing eyes, no one could have mistaken his calling. Free of
speech, frank in praise and criticism, abounding in indiscretions, he
possessed the capacity to make the warmest friends and enemies. He was an
ardent admirer of the British, rejoiced in fighting with them, and
ashamed that our Navy Department was unwilling to send more adequate and
immediate assistance to their fleet. Sims's international reputation as
an expert in naval affairs was of long standing. Naval officers in every
country of Europe knew of him as the inventor of a system of fire control
which had been adopted by the great navies of the world, and it was
largely because of his studies and devices that the extraordinary records
of the American fleets at target practice had been secured. The British
naval officers reciprocated Sims's admiration for them, and, according to
popular belief, it was at their special request that he had been sent to
command our overseas naval forces. No one else could have obtained such
effective cooeperation between the British and American fleets.

While at first the major portion of the American fleet was retained in
home waters for the protection of American coasts and ports, a policy
which aroused the stinging criticism of Admiral Sims, gradually the fleet
added strength to the Allied navies in their patrol of European coasts
and the bottling-up of the German high seas fleet. Destroyer bases were
maintained at Queenstown, Brest, and Gibraltar, from which were
dispatched constant patrols. Individual destroyers, during the first year
of service overseas, steamed a total of 60,000 miles. Their crews were on