se of the naval overseas transportation service.
Of the latter he says in substance:

In ten months the transportation service grew from 10 ships to a fleet
of 321 cargo-carrying ships, aggregating a deadweight tonnage of
2,800,000, and numerically equalling the combined Cunard,
Hamburg-American, and North German Lloyd lines at the outbreak of the
war. Of this number 227 ships were mainly in operation.

From the Emergency Fleet Corporation the navy has taken over for
operation 94 new vessels, aggregating 700,000 deadweight tons. On March
21, 1918, by order of the President 101 Dutch merchant vessels were
taken over by the Navy Department pending their allocation to the
various vital trades of this country, and 26 of these vessels are now a
part of the naval overseas fleet. This vast fleet of cargo vessels has
been officered and manned through enrollment of the seagoing personnel
of the American merchant marine, officers and men of the United States
Navy, and the assignment after training of graduates of technical
schools and training schools, developed by the navy since the United
States entered the war.

There are required for the operation of this fleet at the present time
5,000 officers and 29,000 enlisted men, and adequate arrangements for
future needs of personnel have been provided. The navy has risen to the
exacting demands imposed upon it by the war, and it will certainly be a
source of pride to the American people to know that within ten months of
the time that this new force was created, in spite of the many obstacles
in the way of its accomplishment, an American naval vessel, manned by an
American naval crew, left an American port on the average of every five
hours, carrying subsistence and equipment so vital to the American
Expeditionary Force.

One of the agencies adopted during the war for more efficient naval
administration is the organization and development of naval districts.

Secretary Daniels, in other passages of the foregoing report, declares
that the record made abroad by the United States Navy, in co-operation
with the navies of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, is without
precedent in allied warfare. He pays a high tribute to the efficiency of
Admiral Sims, Commander-in-Chief of American naval forces in European
waters; of Rear-Admiral Rodman, in command of the American battleships
with the British fleet; of Vice-Admiral Wilson, in France; Rear-Admiral
Niblack, in the Mediterranean;