clamour for a specific " invention " that would destroy all
the submarines overnight, or it might demand that the
Allies should block them in their bases, or suggest that they
might do any number of impossible things, but the naval
chiefs of the Allies discovered, on May 20, 1917, that they
could defeat the German campaign even without these
rather uncertain aids. The submarine danger was by no
means ended when this first convoy arrived; many anxious
months still lay ahead of us ; other means would have to be
devised that would supplement the convoy; yet the all-important fact was that the Allied chiefs now realized, for
the first time, that the problem was not an insoluble one;
and that, with hard work and infinite patience, they could
keep open the communications that were essential to victory. The arrival of these weather-beaten ships thus
brought the assurance that the armies and the civilian
populations could be supplied with food and materials, and
that the seas could be kept open for the transportation of
American troops to France. In fine, it meant that the
Allies could win the war.
On May 21st the British Admiralty, which this experimental convoy had entirely converted, voted to adopt the convoy system for all merchant shipping. Not long afterward the second convoy arrived safely from Hampton Roads, and then other convoys began to put in from Scandinavian ports. On July 21st I was able definitely to report to Washington that " the success of the convoys so far brought in shows that the system will defeat the submarine campaign if applied generally and in time."
But while we recognize the fact that the convoy preserved our communications and so made possible the continuation of the war, we must not overlook a vitally important element in its success. In describing the work of the destroyer, which was the protecting arm of the convoy, I have said nothing about the forces that really laid the whole foundation of the anti-submarine campaign. All the time that these destroyers were fighting off the submarines the power that made possible their operations was cruising quietly in the North Sea, doing its work so inconspicuously that the world was hardly aware of its existence. For back of all these operations lay the mighty force of the Grand Fleet. Admiral Beatty's dreadnoughts and battle cruisers, which were afterward supplemented
