Simsadus: London (1920)
by John Langdon Leighton (9780217875820)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BASES. IT has already been said that from June to September, 1917, would be the critical period of the Submarine War; there was also a critical area, and this was in the waters between the Southwestern coast of Ireland and Cape Finisterre, or Brest, France. All ships from the United States, Canada, South America, the Mediterranean, and Africa, had to pass through this area to get into the Southern and Western ports of England, such as Southhamp- ton, Plymouth, Cardiff, Holyhead, or Liverpool. A considerable portion of shipping from the United States and Canada, was directed to pass to the North of Ireland, to Glasgow and Liverpool, thereby avoiding the necessity of steaming into this "neck of a bottle" formed by the Coast lines of England and France. But this did not seriously relieve the congestion of traffic; in fact, the congestion could not be relieved. In order to escort safely the hundreds of vessels which passed through this critical area South of Ireland, escorts to the convoys had to be provided. This meant that any location suitable for a base on the South coast of Ireland, would be very desirable, and Queenstown was the first locality chosen as an American Naval base. It formed a halfway point between the Western ports of Eng- land, and the rendezvous at sea between which the convoys would be escorted. The next base to be decided upon was Brest, the location of which afforded many of the same advantages as those of Queenstown; both were located at the approach to the chief European ports. QUEENSTOWN The first flotilla of American destroyers ordered to Europe was sent directly to Queenstown. This detachment, consisting of six vessels under Commander Taussig, U. S. N., steamed into Queenstown harbor at noon on April 26,1917. The Bri...

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