Gibraltar was the gateway through which passed one-fourth of all the shipping of the Allies. When the convoy system was applied to the Mediterranean, July, 1917, it became the principal convoy port of the world.
United States naval vessels furnished ocean escort both going and returning for 90 per cent of all convoys between Gibraltar and Great Britain--200 of the 225 groups which sailed, 4,269 ships, representing 12,000,000 gross tons. The Mediterranean escort protected 5,120 vessels; our destroyers in that region, 1004; our Marseilles escort 73; and our men-of-war accompanied 12 other special ships, transports, cable layers and submarines. Thus the United States vessels of this force escorted a total of 10,478 ships.
Realizing the strategic importance of Gibraltar, the Navy Department, on July 5, 1917, decided to establish a base there, and on July 14th, directed 11 vessels, including gunboats and light cruisers, under command of Admiral Wilson, to prepare for distant service, and sail for Gibraltar at the earliest possible date. This base, one of the most important in Europe, was established by the Navy Department on its own initiative, as had been the bases at Brest and Bordeaux and the Azores. By the time our vessels arrived it became, for protection of Allied shipping, a point of prime importance.
The convoy system was inaugurated in the Mediterranean, by British Admiralty order, on July 22, 1917. Five days afterwards the first regular convoy of 14 ships sailed for England. August 6th the vanguard of the United States naval vessels, the cruiser _Sacramento_ (Captain T. T. Craven) reached Gibraltar. On the 17th Admiral Wilson arrived in the _Birmingham_ (Captain C. L. Hussey), followed next day by the _Nashville_ (Captain H. E. Yarnell). Other ships followed--the gunboats _Castine_ (Captain W. C. Asserson), _Machias_ (Commander Austin Kautz), _Wheeling_ (Commander H. W. Osterhaus), _Paducah_ (Commander H. H. Royall), the cruiser _Chester_ (Captain Philip Williams), the Coast Guard cutters _Seneca_ (Captain W. J. Wheeler), _Manning_ (Lieutenant Commander A. J. Henderson), _Tampa_ (Lieutenant Commander Charles C. Satterlee), _Ossipee_ (Lieutenant Commander W. H. Munter), _Yamacraw_ (Lieutenant Commander Randolph Ridgely), _Algonquin_ (Lieutenant Commander G. C. Carmine), the converted yachts _Yankton_ (Lieutenant G. E. Lake), _Nahma_ (Lieutenant Commander E. Friedrick), _Druid_ (Lieutenant Commander J. F. Connor), _Wenonah_ (Lieutenant Commander P. E. Speicher), _Arcturus_ (Lieutenant Commander C. F. Howell), _Lydonia_ (Lieutenant Commander R. P. McCullough), _Cythera_ (Lieutenant Commander W. G. Roper), _Wadena_ (Lieutenant Commander W. M. Falconer), and _Venetia_ (Commander L. B. Porterfield), the Coast and Geodetic Survey vessel _Surveyor_ (Commander R. E. Pope), the destroyers _Bainbridge_ (Lieutenant T. A. Thomson, Jr.), _Barry_ (Lieutenant H. P. Sampson), _Chauncey_ (Lieutenant Commander W. E. Reno), _Dale_ (Lieutenant Roy Pfaff), _Decatur_ (Lieutenant Ralph R. Stewart), _Gregory_ (Commander A. P. Fairfield), _Dyer_ (Commander F. H. Poteet), _Stribling_ (Commander G. C. Logan), _Luce_ (Commander R. C. Parker), _Israel_ (Lieutenant Commander G. N. Barker), _Maury_ (Commander J. H. Newton), _Lansdale_ (Lieutenant Commander C. W. Magruder), and _Schley_ (Lieutenant Commander R. C. Giffen), and the destroyer tender _Buffalo_ (Captain C. M. Tozer).