One may fancy so. Things were looking exceedingly black about that time.
In the previous three weeks submarines had sunk 152 British merchant
vessels, and patrol-vessels each day were bringing in survivors of the
various victims. It was a situation which could not go on if the British
cause were not to be very seriously injured. The question of supplies,
food, munitions, and the like, for which both France and England were
relying upon the United States to furnish, was looming vitally. This
country had the things to send, all cargoes, of all sorts. But to send
them to the war zone and then have them lost was a heart-breaking
situation for every one concerned.

One thus is able to imagine the emotions with which the British at
Queenstown received our flotilla when it came in from the sea on the
morning of May 13. Motion pictures of this eventful arrival have been
shown in this country, with the result that we who were not there have
an impression of a crowded waterfront, of American flags flying
everywhere, of the American commander leaving his vessel and going
ashore to call upon the British commander Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly and
the Honorable Wesley Frost, the American Consul at Queenstown. The
destroyers had steamed into the harbor in a long line and with great
precision came to a stop at the designated moorings. All this, as said,
we have seen on the film, as we have seen the British and American
officers going through the motions of formal felicitation. What was
said, however, came to us through another medium. Admiral Bayly, after
the formal ceremony of greeting was ended, said with British directness:

"When will you be ready for business?"

The reply was prompt: