All on board that raft were lost. The lifeboat, containing mainly wounded soldiers, was threatened by the Germans, who went aboard it in their search for the ship's commander. They failed to discover Captain Madison, who lay, badly wounded, almost under their feet. The Captain and 21 men were in that boat for four days before they were rescued by the British steamer _Moorish Prince_. The two officers made prisoners found that the submarine was the U-152, which had left Kiel September 5, ordered to operate in American waters. The submarine, Muller and Fulcher said, received on October 11 the order from Berlin, "Engage men of war only; merchant war has ended," and on October 20 the radio, "All submarines return to Kiel." The U-152 arrived at Kiel November 15, four days after the armistice. The two _Ticonderoga_ officers stated that the executive officer of the _Kronprinz Heinrich_, the mother ship of the submarines, formally released them as prisoners, saying, "Naval officers have no more power over you." He blamed the collapse of Germany upon the entry of the United States into the war. "You have ruined our country," he added. "See what you have done!" He told them that they were free to go ashore and the next day the lieutenants left for Copenhagen, from which they made their way to America. Only eight N. O. T. S. vessels were lost by enemy action, and six from other causes during the war period. Though the Naval Overseas Transportation Service was not formally organized under that name until January 9, 1918, naval vessels had been performing such service from the beginning of the war. Commander Charles Belknap was the director of this service from its inception until January 17, 1919, when he was succeeded by Rear Admiral Hilary P. Jones. Six million tons of cargo were carried by Navy vessels from May, 1917, to December, 1918, following being the principal items: For the Army in France 3,102,462 tons For the Navy (exclusive of coal) 1,090,724 tons Coal shipped from Norfolk 1,348,177 tons Coal from Cardiff to France for Army 96,000 tons Food for the Allies 359,627 tons --------- 5,996,990 tons Five hundred million pounds of meats, butter, etc., were carried to our forces overseas, only 4,000 pounds being lost on voyage. In addition to 1,500,000 tons of coal carried overseas or from England to France, 700,000 tons of fuel oil and gasoline were taken to Brest, Queenstown, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic. The N. O. T. S. also operated the mine-transports, which carried across the Atlantic 82,000 complete mine-units for the North Sea Barrage.