Skip to main content
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.

4 . 11 . 17

My dear Admiral

     Tr. Con. 91 gave me an awful start. You will have got my memorandum by now;2 really if proper information is not given there will be a big reckoning some day.

I strongly recommend that unless each transport carries less than 2000 men, we never have more than four transports in a convoy. Think over this; of course if we had more destroyers it would be different, but we have barely enough.

Sorry to have telegraphed that we had not the keywords; the operations have gone down to one percent.

Good luck

     yours very sincerely

          Lewis Bayly

The niece sends her love and hopes to see you this month. The ways of the Admiralty are rather unenviable: They have kept Farquhar on the active list and so kept me from being an Admiral.3

B.       

Source Note: ALS, DLC-MSS, William S. Sims Papers, Box 47.

Footnote 1: Troop Convoy 9.

Footnote 2: The memorandum referred to has not been found.

Footnote 3: Bayly’s neice, Miss Violet Voysey, and Adm. Richard B. Farquhar, R.N., who was Vice President of the Ordnance Board.

Related Content