With the entrance of America into the war, the carrying problem became at once more complicated and greater in bulk; and in its solution the Cunard Company may once more justly be said to have played a major part. Let us consider first its work in the carriage of troops. The Cunard organisation was responsible for the transport during the war of over 900,000 officers and men. This excludes the big total repatriated after the Armistice was signed. When it is remembered that this aggregate is greater than the total population of either Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham; that 900,000 men, marching in column of route in sections of fours would take, without halting, nearly six days to pass a single point, it becomes possible to visualise the immensity of the task represented by these bald figures. When it is further remembered that the total British Expeditionary Force first thrown across the English Channel in August, 1914, was only 80,000; that this was less than one-tenth of the number carried during the war by the Cunard Company; and that the number so carried was equal to not less than one-eighth of the whole British Army at its greatest strength, the nation’s debt to this great Company can be estimated. Nor was the mere provisioning of these troops while _en route_ a negligible feat of transport. Taking an average voyage as ten days, the food required to feed this number of men amounted to no less than 9,750,000 pounds of meat, 11,250,000 pounds of potatoes, 4,500,000 pounds of vegetables, 9,575,000 loaves of bread, 1,275,000 pounds of jam, 900,000 pounds of tea and coffee, and among other things 900,000 pounds of oatmeal, 600,000 pounds of butter and 127,000 gallons of milk. [Illustration: THE TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA”: SURVIVORS BEING TAKEN IN ONE OF THE BOATS] Vast as these figures are, however, they are dwarfed when we begin to consider what was accomplished during the five years of war in the way of cargo carrying--in the humdrum performance of an unadvertised and often little appreciated service, upon which, fundamentally, our whole war structure rested. Between August, 1914, and November, 1918, 7,314,000 tons of foodstuffs, munitions of war, and general cargo were carried from America and Canada to the British Isles; over 340,000 tons from the British Isles to Italy and the Adriatic; over 500,000 tons from the British Isles to other Mediterranean Ports; nearly 320,000 tons from this country to France; and nearly 60,000 tons from France to this country. In addition to this, huge quantities were also carried westwards from this country, amounting to a total, in the same period, of more than 1,000,000 tons.