This group closed its war service with two exciting experiences. On November 10th the S. C. 126, 190 and 353, while on patrol, were mistaken for enemy submarines and were fired upon by the steamship Bahia. The next day, about the time the armistice went into effect, a British vessel, without waiting for recognition signals, fired on the S. C. 214. Luckily the shells missed and the sturdy little boats escaped unscathed.
The organization of our sub-chaser service in European waters was:
At U. S. Naval Headquarters. London—Captain R. H. Leigh, Commander Sub-chasers, Distant Service; Lieutenant Commander W. R. Carter, detection devices; Lieutenant Commander E. C. Raguet, communication officer; Lieutenant Commander R. M. Griffin, sub-chasers; C. F. Scott, technical expert, devices; E. L. Nelson, technical expert, radio.
Sub-chaser Detachment 1, Plymouth—Captain L. A. Cotten, commanding; Hannibal, repair ship; Parker, Aylwin, destroyers; 36 to 66 sub-chasers.
Submarine Detachment 2, Corfu—Captain C. P. Nelson, commanding; Hannibal, repair ship; 36 sub-chasers.
Submarine Detachment 3, Queenstown—Captain A. J. Hepburn, commanding; 30 sub-chasers.
These were the principal bases, though our chasers also did valuable work from Brest, Gibraltar and other points and at the Azores.
Twenty-four sub-chasers assisted in sweeping up the mines of the North Sea Barrage from April to the end of September, 1919, and four were damaged by exploding mines.
The sub-chasers played an important part in operations against the German U-boats off the American coast in the summer of 1918. Scores of them were on patrol along the Atlantic, and speeded to the vicinity whenever a submarine was reported. Immediately after the U-151 appeared off the New Jersey Coast, June 2, a special hunting group was formed of 33 sub-chasers, headed by the destroyers Jouett, Henley and Perkins, and later another group, headed by the Patterson, was organized. These hunters kept on the move, pursuing the "subs" for months, from the Virginia Capes to Nova Scotia.
Many were kept busy escorting coastwise convoys, and patrolling the coast. One group is reported to have escorted from port, with other naval ships, vessels bearing 400,000 troops. Many chasers were almost constantly at sea. The Hampton Roads Squadron, in command of Lieutenant Herbert L. Stone, averaged 75 per cent of the time on duty. Sub-chasers, under Lieutenant Le Sauvage, in the vicinity of Fire Island, when the San Diego was lost, were on duty 28 days out of 30.