ed
through a wake believed to be from the passing submarine. A second
torpedo passed under the destroyer _A's_ stern ten minutes later.

Another destroyer known as _D_ was also the target of a torpedo which
passed it from starboard to port across the bow about forty yards
ahead of the ship, leaving a perceptible wake visible for about four
or five hundred yards.

The submarine sighted by the flagship immediately engaged the
attention of destroyer _B_. In fact it darted under the latter and
passed the flagship's bows, disappearing close aboard on the
flagship's port bow between the destroyer columns. The _B_ followed
the wake between the columns and reported strong indications of two
submarines astern, which grew fainter. The _B_ afterward guarded the
rear of the convoy.

So much for the ghostly movements of the submarine or submarines which
crossed the tracks of the first contingent of American transports on
the night of June 22. In the absence of more tangible proof of their
presence beyond that provided by white streaks and wakes on the sea
surface, the incident might well have been a false alarm. It only
occasioned much excitement and activity. But its interest lay in the
alertness of the destroyers to danger. The officers on board the
flotilla had no doubt at all that the danger was real. Admiral
Gleaves, indeed, saw circumstantial evidence of the menace in alluding
to a bulletin of the French General Staff which referred to the
activities of a German submarine off the Azores. This U-boat, the
bulletin said, was ordered to watch in the vicinity of those islands,
"at such a distance as it was supposed the enemy American convoy would
pass from the Azores."

The second contingent of transports, which arrived in France a week
later, had a similar experience, with the important difference that
their encounters with submarines took place in broad daylight, and
that the firing at one of them produced material traces of the enemy's
proximity. Two submarines were met on the morning of June 26, 1917,
one at 11.30, when the ships were about a hundred miles off the coast
of France, the other an hour later. The destroyer _H_, which was
leading, sighted the first U-boat, and the _I_ pursued the wake, but
without making any further discovery. The second episode was more
convincing of the actual presence of a submarine. The destroyer _J_
saw the bow wave of one at a distance of 1,500 yards and headed for it
at a rapid speed.