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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Vice Admiral Lewis Bayly, R.N., Commander, Naval Forces, Southern Ireland to Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters

Admiralty House,

Queenstown.  

9.11.17           

My dear Admiral.

          I ought to have written before, as well as to have thanked you for the History of Ireland which I shall read with great interest. I am sad at losing Johnson Taussig and Hanrahan out of the flotilla, but we shall get good work out of them elsewhere, and there are lots of good fish in the sea.1

I have got your letter on Troop Convoy 9: it was a very near shave, but I understand your reasoning and I hope in future it will be all right. I am going to send eight destroyers for four transports always if possible, but there will also only be eight for six transports.2

All hands are working well and as keen as ever; I have issued a pamphlet to them and by doing so have given a hostage to my critics, which is not a bad thing; a knock now and then does good. We still look forward to a visit from you this month. Good luck.

Yours very sincerely,

Sgd. Lewis Bayly.

Source Note: Cy, DLC-MSS, William Sims Papers, Box 23.

Footnote 1: Cmdr. Alfred W. Johnson, Cmdr. Joseph K. Taussig, and Lt. Cmdr. David C. Hanrahan. At a meeting on Melville with Capt. Joel R. Poinsett Pringle, Senior Officer, Destroyer Flotilla Based at Queenstown, Pringle informed Taussig, Johnson, and Lt. Cmdr. Walter N. Vernou that Sims had provided orders that three commanders from the destroyer flotilla should be sent home, one of whom was to be Vernou, and the other two from the first division to arrive in Queenstown in May 1917. Both Johnson and Taussig requested that they be allowed to return home, which Pringle agreed to recommend. Sims approved this recommendation on 7 November, and, on 12 November, the three commanders were officially relieved of their duties as the commanding officers on their respective vessels; see, Diary of Joseph K. Taussig, 5 November 1917 and 12 November 1917, RNW, Joseph Taussig Papers. Hanrahan, also a commanding officer in the Queenstown Destroyer Flotilla had just been appointed the commanding officer of Santee, an American Mystery, or “Q”, Ship, on loan from the Royal Navy; see: Sims to Bayly, 29 October 1917.

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