The elaborate and smoothly running machine of operation, supply, equipment, and personnel had come to a halt with the armistice. The destroyers had fled homeward. The barracks and _dépôts_ for material at Passage, a little way up the river, had been almost emptied, and the great naval aviation base on the other side of Queenstown Harbor was like a deserted city. All that remained was what Admiral Bayly called the job of “cleaning up the mess.” For this the American chief of staff was required to linger on the scene, but it was decided to send the _Melville_ home and the _Corsair_ was elected to take the place, or, as her men said, “it was wished on her.” On December 27th the yacht tied up alongside the _Melville_ in Queenstown Harbor, and three days later Captain Pringle and his staff transferred their offices and living quarters. This group of officers comprised Commander A. P. Fairfield, Lieutenant Commander D. B. Wainwright (Pay Corps), Lieutenant A. C. Davis, Ensign W. B. Feagle. Soon the _Corsair_ was alone as the only American naval vessel in this port which had swarmed with the keen activity of scores of destroyers and thousands of bluejackets. To build up this force and keep it going at top speed had been an enormous task, but it was no slight undertaking to pull it down again. Winter rains and sodden skies made Queenstown even drearier than when the liberty parties of destroyer men had piled ashore to fill the American Sailors’ Club, or surge madly around and around in the roller-skating rink, or live in hope of cracking the head of a Sinn Feiner as the most zestful pastime that could be offered. Dashing young destroyer officers no longer lingered a little in the pub of the Queen’s Hotel for a smile from a rosy barmaid with the gift of the blarney, and a farewell toast before going to sea again, while the Royal Cork Yacht Club, down by the landing pier, seemed almost forlorn without the sociable evenings when American and British naval officers had swapped yarns of the day’s work and talked the “hush stuff” about mystery ships and U-boats that would never see their own ports again.