Our dream of building a plane that would fly across the Atlantic had been translated into reality. Six months later the NC-4 made the first flight from America to Europe, from Rockaway, Long Island, to Nova Scotia, the Azores, Portugal and England, landing at Plymouth, the port from which, three centuries before, the Pilgrims had set sail for America. [Illustration: PAUILLAC, NAVAL AVIATION STATION Pauillac, on the Gironde River near Bordeaux, was one of the great assembly and repair bases maintained by the Navy.] [Illustration: FLIERS WHOSE EXPLOITS BROUGHT PRESTIGE TO NAVAL AVIATION At the left, in his seaplane, is Lieutenant G. H. Ludlow, who was rescued, after his plane was disabled by enemy fire, by Ensign C. H. Hammann (inset). At the right is Lieutenant David S. Ingalls, first naval ace.] CHAPTER XXI THE FERRY TO FRANCE "N. O. T. S.," THE WORLD'S LARGEST CARGO FLEET--OPERATING 450 STEAMERS, NAVY HAULED MILLIONS OF TONS OF MUNITIONS, FOOD, FUEL AND SUPPLIES TO FORCES ABROAD--ONLY EIGHT SUNK BY U-BOATS OR MINES--"TICONDEROGA" TORPEDOED--DISAPPEARANCE OF "CYCLOPS" MYSTERY OF THE WAR. "N. O. T. S." You may not recognize those initials, but every sailor on the Atlantic was familiar enough with them in 1918, for they stood for the largest cargo fleet on earth, under a single management--the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. No one had ever heard of it a year before. But before the end of hostilities 490 vessels, 3,800,000 deadweight tons, had been assigned to this service, and 378 were in actual operation, the remainder being under construction or preparing to go into commission. If the war had continued through 1919 we would have needed, according to the estimates, at least 20,000 officers and 200,000 men for this service alone. The number might have gone well over a quarter-million. The Shipping Board and American yards were building ships at a rate never before approached. The schedule for 1918-19 contemplated the delivery of 1,924 vessels, the large majority of which were to be put into war service and manned by the Navy. Officers and men had to be recruited and trained months in advance, and this we were doing, to have the crews ready to get to sea as vessels were completed. They manned, in all, 450 cargo ships.