When rail transportation broke down in the cruel winter of 1917-18, threatening to close down New England's industries and cause widespread suffering, the Navy released large quantities of coal stored at supply bases, and naval vessels hauled to Boston and other ports the fuel which brought relief to that section. During the war, when there was not enough merchant shipping for commerce in the western hemisphere, N. O. T. S. ships carried American goods, manufactures and other cargoes to and from the West Indies, Mexico, and the ports of Central and South America. The activities of the N. O. T. S. did not end with the armistice. For many months the Navy continued to haul supplies and fuel to our forces abroad, took commercial cargoes wherever needed, and carried food to the distressed regions of Europe. Its vessels plied to nearly every quarter of the globe--to Russia, Germany, Holland, England, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Turkey and Arabia; to South America; to Hawaii, the Philippines and China, going as far as Burma, Ceylon, and the Dutch East Indies. CHAPTER XXII RADIO GIRDLED THE GLOBE IF GERMANS HAD CUT EVERY CABLE, WE COULD STILL HAVE TALKED TO EUROPE--FROM ONE ROOM IN NAVY DEPARTMENT FLASHED DESPATCHES TO ENGLAND, FRANCE AND ITALY--CAUGHT GERMAN AS WELL AS ALLIED WIRELESS--QUEER "NEWS" FROM BERLIN--U. S. NAVY BUILT IN FRANCE RADIO STATION WHOSE MESSAGES ARE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD. If the Germans had cut every cable--and their U-boats did cut some of them--we would still have been able to keep in touch with Pershing and the Army in France, with Sims in London, Rodman and Strauss in the North Sea, Wilson at Brest, Niblack at Gibraltar, Dunn in the Azores, with all our forces and Allies. A spark, flashing its wave through the air, would in an instant cross the Atlantic. Caught by the Eiffel tower in Paris or the Lyons station, by the British at Carnarvon, by the tall Italian towers in Rome, it could be quickly transmitted to any commander or chancellery in Europe. That was the marvel wrought by radio. President Wilson and Secretary Baker in Washington were, so far as time was concerned, in closer touch with Pershing and his forces than President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton were with the battle-fields a few miles away in Virginia, during the Civil War. It was infinitely easier for me to send a message or hear from our vessels 3,000 or 4,000 miles distant than it was for Gideon Welles, when he was Secretary of the Navy, to communicate with the Federal ships at Charleston or with Farragut at Mobile. Vessels at sea could be reached almost as easily as if they had been at their docks. Submarine warnings, routings, all kinds of information and orders were sent to them, fifty or sixty messages being transmitted simultaneously. At the same time radio operators were intercepting every word or signal sent out by ships. Sometimes, as the operators remarked, "the air was full of them."