American destroyers at Queenstown

On 4 May 1917 six American destroyers entered Queenstown on the south coast of Ireland: Wadsworth, Conyngham, Porter, McDougal, Davis and Wainwright. This was the 8th Destroyer Division of the Atlantic Fleet under Commander Joseph K. Taussig, who sailed in the flagship Wadsworth. The first United States Navy ships sent to fight German submarines off the coasts of Europe arrived less than a month after the declaration of war on Germany. The British chronology of the war gives 2 May, but the accounts of the American navy and the memoirs of Admiral Sims agree: the destroyers entered harbour on 4 May.

Across the Atlantic

From the first days of April Rear Admiral William Sims, who had come to London and learned the true losses of British shipping, had been asking for every destroyer America could spare. On 14 April Taussig was ordered to take the division to Boston and prepare it for “distant service”. The ships were modern Tucker-class vessels. They had been built with long Atlantic voyages in mind, so they carried more fuel than British destroyers, although they were slower. On the afternoon of 24 April they left Boston. Taussig was not to open his sealed envelope until 50 miles east of Cape Cod. The order from the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, told him to proceed to Queenstown, report to the senior British naval officer and “assist the naval operations of the Entente Powers in every way possible”. He was to receive further instructions from Sims in London. The voyage took ten days, almost all of it in gales, and on several ships the fans and condensers broke down. On 3 May off the Irish coast the Americans were met by the British destroyer Mary Rose. She signalled: “Welcome to the American colours”, to which Taussig replied: “Thank you, I am glad of your company.”

Welcome at Queenstown

Queenstown was a special place for the Americans. From here ships had carried Irish emigrants to America, and here in May 1915 the survivors and victims of the sunken Lusitania had been brought ashore. According to the American navy, a few hours before the division arrived British minesweepers still had to clear the approach to the harbour of freshly laid German mines. Crowds with American flags gathered on the quays and hills, and boats full of civilians came up to the landing stage. The Lord Mayor of Cork received the officers at the American consulate, and a cameraman sent by the British government filmed the whole welcome. Newsreels of the Americans’ arrival were later shown in cinemas across the British Isles. The scene of the ships entering harbour was later painted by Bernard Gribble, who called the picture The Return of the Mayflower.

A letter from the First Sea Lord, Admiral John Jellicoe, was already waiting for Taussig. The two had lain wounded in the same hospital in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, when Taussig was a 21-year-old naval cadet and Jellicoe a captain. Now Jellicoe wrote that no navy in the world could give the British more valuable help. A second letter, much shorter, came from Vice-Admiral Lewis Bayly, commander on the coast of Ireland, under whom the division was to serve. He invited the ships’ captains to dinner that same evening and added: “Undress uniform, no speeches.”

“We are ready now”

Bayly was regarded as one of the most demanding and curt admirals in the Royal Navy. According to Sims’s memoirs, when the Americans reported at his headquarters he first asked when they would be ready to go to sea. Taussig answered: “We are ready now, sir, that is, as soon as we finish refuelling.” Bayly gave them four days to prepare. The reply passed into US Navy legend, although its details are uncertain. Some accounts move the conversation to the evening dinner, and Taussig himself noted in his diary that he did not remember using those words, although another officer present in the room assured him that that was exactly what he had said.

The Americans used those days for brief training and for fitting depth charges on some of the ships. On 8 May they went out on their first patrol in the Western Approaches west and south of Ireland, through which a large share of the ships from America passed. Bayly set the rhythm of service: six days at sea, two in port. The gruff admiral quickly won the respect of the young Americans, who according to Sims called him “Uncle Lewis”, and the boldest even addressed him so to his face. On 17 May a second division of American destroyers arrived, and according to Sims by the beginning of July 34 American destroyers were based at Queenstown. The Queenstown ships later escorted the first American troop convoys and merchant ships bound for Britain.