Admiral Bayly came to meet the _Fanning_ as she sailed into Queenstown with her unexpected cargo. He went on board the destroyer to congratulate personally the officers and men upon their achievement. He published to the assembled company a cablegram just received from the Admiralty in London: Express to commanding officers and men of the United States ship _Fanning_ their Lordships' high appreciation of their successful action against enemy submarine. I added a telegram of my own, ending up with the words, which seemed to amuse the officers and men: "Go out and do it again." For this action the commanding officer of the _Fanning_, Lieutenant-Commander Carpender, was recommended by the Admiralty for the D.S.O., which was subsequently conferred upon him by the King at Buckingham Palace. Only one duty remained: the commanding officer read the burial service over the body of poor Franz Glinder, the German sailor who had been drowned in his attempt to swim to the _Fanning_. The _Fanning_ then steamed out to sea with the body and buried it with all the honours of war. A letter subsequently written by Kapitän Amberger to a friend in Germany summed up his opinion of the situation in these words: "The Americans were much nicer and more obliging than expected." VI So far as convoying merchant ships was concerned, Queenstown was the largest American base; by the time the movement of troops laid heavy burdens on the American destroyers Brest became a headquarters almost equally important. In July, 1917, the British Government requested the co-operation of the American navy in the great work which it had undertaken at Gibraltar; and on August 6th the U.S.S. _Sacramento_ reached that port, followed about a week afterward by the _Birmingham_ flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Henry B. Wilson. Admiral Wilson remained as commander of this force until November, when he left to assume the direction of affairs at Brest. On November 25th Rear-Admiral Albert P. Niblack succeeded to this command, which he retained throughout the war. Gibraltar was the "gateway" for more traffic than any other port in the world. It was estimated that more than one quarter of all the convoys which reached the Entente nations either rendezvoused at this point or passed through these Straits. This was the great route to the East by way of the Suez Canal. From Gibraltar extended the Allied lines of communication to southern France, Italy, Salonika, Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. There were other routes to Bizerta (Tunis), Algiers, the island of Milo, and a monthly service to the Azores.