On November 18th the _Corsair_ sailed from Brest with the expectation of acting as the flagship representing the United States in the surrender and internment of the naval forces of Imperial Germany. As passengers she carried to England Captain E. P. Jessop, U.S.N., and Commander C. T. Hutchins, Jr., who had been commissioned to examine the German submarines. The orders included a stop at Saint Helens, Isle of Wight, for routing instructions. There the _Corsair_ was told to seek further information from the patrol off Folkstone. War restrictions concerning war channels, mine-fields, pilotage, and closed ports were still in force. Commander Porter jogged along until Folkstone was reached in the evening, and was there informed that there was no patrol, but that the channel was clear to Dover. A fog came down thick while the _Corsair_ waited off Dover Breakwater for a pilot, but none appeared, so she went on her way through the Strait and past the Goodwin Sands, pausing to inquire at the North Gull light-ship if anybody had seen a Thames pilot thereabouts. Deal was suggested as a good place to look, so the _Corsair_ returned and anchored there at midnight. No pilot could be found, however, so at five o’clock in the morning the skipper hove up his mud-hook and “trailed along” as he said, with some ships that were bound to the northward. The pace was too slow to suit him, so he joined company with another group of vessels ahead and discovered, a little later, that they were mine-sweepers engaged in clearing the channel. This was considered a fairly good joke on the skipper. He said good-bye to this dangerous flotilla and steamed along alone, anchoring twice in a fog that was like a wool blanket, and fetched up for the night eight miles below Sheerness. Asking permission of the patrol next morning to proceed up the Thames to Gravesend, the _Corsair_ learned that her destination had been changed to Sheerness. Here she met with a disappointment. The cruiser _Chester_ arrived unexpectedly and was selected as the flagship of Rear Admiral Robison, as was quite proper. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, however, and just after starting north for Rosyth and the Grand Fleet, the _Chester_ was compelled to return with machinery disabled. The _Corsair_ was ordered to proceed to Scotland in place of the cruiser and she left the Thames on November 30th to steam up into the gray North Sea, and the great war base near Edinburgh.