Produced by David Edwards, Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE VICTORY AT SEA REAR-ADMIRAL W. S. SIMS U.S. NAVY THE VICTORY AT SEA [Illustration: _Rear Admiral William Sowden Sims U.S. Navy_ _G. Vandyk Ltd. photographers_] THE VICTORY AT SEA BY REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM SOWDEN SIMS U.S. NAVY COMMANDER OF THE AMERICAN NAVAL FORCES OPERATING IN EUROPEAN WATERS DURING THE GREAT WAR IN COLLABORATION WITH BURTON J. HENDRICK WITH PORTRAIT AND PLANS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1920 FIRST EDITION _November 1920_ _Reprinted_ _December 1920_ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Printed by Hasell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England._ TO THE GALLANT OFFICERS AND MEN WHOM I HAD THE HONOUR TO COMMAND DURING THE GREAT WAR IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF A LOYAL DEVOTION TO THE CAUSE THAT GREATLY LIGHTENED THE RESPONSIBILITY BORNE BY "THE OLD MAN" PREFACE This is not in any sense a history of the operations of our naval forces in Europe during the Great War, much less a history of the naval operations as a whole. That would require not only many volumes, but prolonged and careful research by competent historians. When such a work is completed, our people will realize for the first time the admirable initiative with which the gallant personnel of our navy responded to the requirements of an unprecedented naval situation. But in the meantime this story has been written in response to a demand for some account of the very generally misunderstood submarine campaign and, particularly, of the means by which it was defeated. The interest of the public in such a story is due to the fact that during the war the sea forces were compelled to take all possible precautions to keep the enemy from learning anything about the various devices and means used to oppose or destroy the under-water craft. This necessity for the utmost secrecy was owing to the peculiar nature of the sea warfare. When the armies first made use of airplane bombs, or poison gas, or tanks, or mobile railroad batteries, the existence of these weapons and the manner of their use were necessarily at once revealed to the enemy, and the press was permitted to publish full accounts of them and, to a certain extent, of their effect and the means used to oppose them. Moreover, all general movements of the contending armies that resulted in engagements were known with fair accuracy on both sides within a short time after they occurred and were promptly reported to an anxious public.