There was first of all the task of organizing and operating the large
transport system required to carry our share of troops overseas for
foreign service. Within a month after the President had announced that
troops would be sent to Europe the first contingent had been organized,
and all its units were safely landed in France before the 4th of July.
These included a force of marines under Colonel (now Brigadier-General)
Charles A. Doyen, which is serving in the army under Major-General
Pershing. Since that time a constant stream of troops and supplies has
poured across the Atlantic under naval control and supervision, the
presiding officer in charge of transport being Rear-Admiral Albert
Gleaves.

Then, again, the United States took over control of most of the patrol
of the western Atlantic. Our thousands of miles of coast had to be
guarded against enemy attack and protected against German raiders. A
squadron under command of Admiral William B. Caperton was sent to South
America and received with the utmost enthusiasm at Rio de Janeiro, at
Montevideo and Buenos Aires, which cities were visited on invitation
from the governments of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. After Brazil's
entrance into the war the Brazilian Navy co-operated with our vessels in
the patrol of South American waters.

The taking over of some 800 craft of various kinds, and their conversion
into types needed, provided the navy with the large number of vessels
required for transports, patrol service, submarine-chasers,
mine-sweepers, mine-layers, tugs, and other auxiliaries. The repair of
the 109 German ships whose machinery had been damaged by their
crews--details of which will be treated in a subsequent chapter--added
more than 700,000 tons to our available naval and merchant tonnage, and
provided for the navy a number of huge transports which have been in