e-forgotten morning when Sir David Beatty and his admirals
accepted the unconditional surrender of the German fleet and its unsunk
submarines.

Were this chapter to end with the foregoing description of the convoy
system the reader would not be in possession of the full facts from
which to gauge the importance of the work. Something must be said of
what was accomplished. First in order of importance came the transport
of many millions of soldiers not only from England to France, but also
to and from every colony and dominion of the world-wide Empire. By
August, 1915, the British navy had transported, across seas infested
with submarines and mines, a million men without the loss of a single
life or a single troopship.[5] The first Canadian army of 33,000 men
crossed the Atlantic in one big fleet of forty liners, under the escort
of four cruisers and a battleship, in October, 1914, without accident.
Transports to the number of 60 were required to convey the first
Australian army over the 14,000 miles of sea to Europe, and it was while
convoying this huge fleet that the cruiser _Sydney_ chased and destroyed
the German raider _Emden_. The Russian force which rendered valuable
service in France was safely convoyed over the 9000 miles of sea from
Dalny to Marseilles. Never once during the four and a half years of war
was the supply of food, munitions and reinforcements, or the return of
the wounded--to and from the many theatres of land operations--seriously
hindered by the German, Austrian or Turkish navies.

Turning to the gigantic task of guarding England's food supply, we find,
in one notable case, an example of the good work performed almost daily
for nearly five years. Over 4500 merchant ships had been escorted across
the North Sea to Scandinavian ports alone before the disaster of 14th
October 1917 befell the convoy on that route. On that occasion the
anti-submarine escort of three destroyers were intercepted, midway
between the Shetland Islands and Norway, by two heavily armed German
cruisers. The destroyers fought to the last to save their charges, but
unfortunately only three merchant ships succeeded in getting safely
away. Five Norwegian ships, three Swedish and one Danish ship were sunk.
From this it will be observed that not only British merchantmen were
protected by escorts.

The second attack on the Scandinavian convoy occurred on 12th December.
The escort consisted of two destroyers, the _Partridge_ and _Pel