While escort to Gibraltar-Bizerta convoy on May 17, 1918, the British steamship Sculptor was torpedoed at 6:48 p. m. Submarine was not seen, but the Venetia, having been previously detailed to attack with depth-charges, and remain behind four hours to keep down submarine, did so. At 7:02 p. m. wake of submarine was sighted and depth-charges dropped. On May 18th an enemy submarine interned at Cartagena, Spain, and was officially assumed to have been damaged by the Venetia.
While on escort duty, Gibraltar-Genoa, the British steamship Messidor was torpedoed at 7:24 p. m., July 23, 1918, and the Venetia instantly made attack, dropping thirteen depth-charges on pre-arranged plan.
The cruiser Chester had two encounters with submarines. While on convoy duty November 9, 1917, it attacked with gunfire a submarine which had sunk one of the vessels of the convoy, compelling the U-boat to submerge. On September 5, 1918, at 1:04 a. m., the Chester, on ocean escort, sighted a submarine close aboard on the starboard bow. First the cruiser attempted to ram the enemy, then attacked the undersea craft with depth-charges, which apparently damaged the U-boat.
Four days later a submarine attacked Convoy GGA-54, torpedoing and sinking the British steamship Arabis. The Paducah attacked with depth-bombs and, according to reports, damaged the submarine. The Seneca on September 16th drove off a submarine which attacked Convoy OM-99. The U. S. S. Druid and H. M. S. Gilia repulsed an attack on Convoy BG-65, on September 22nd. Escorting Convoy BG-67, on September 30th, the Seneca sighted a periscope and attacked with depth-charges and gunfire.
Convoy BG-68, escorted by the Cythera, was attacked the night of October 3rd, and two steamships, the British Ariel and the French St. Luc, were torpedoed. The Cythera went for the submarine, laying a pattern of depth-charges. While being escorted through the Straits of Gibraltar by H. M. S. Defender and the U. S. S. Decatur, H. M. S. Britannia was torpedoed and sunk at 7 a. m., November 9, 1918. The Decatur attacked with depth-charges. The same day a torpedo was fired at the Parker, which was on temporary duty on the western barrage line, in the Straits. But the torpedo missed, and the Parker went after the U-boat, dropping depth-bombs around her.
German submarine activity around Gibraltar continued up to the very end of hostilities. On November 10, 1918, the day before the armistice, the Israel, which was operating on the barrage line with a sub-chaser, discovered and attacked a U-boat, and the same day Sub-chaser Unit C, while patrolling off Point Boassa, also made contact with a submarine.
Two vessels of the Gibraltar force were lost—the destroyer Chauncey, sunk in collision with the British steamship Rose, November 19, 1917, and the Coast Guard cutter Tampa, sunk in British waters September 30, 1918.
The six little destroyers sent from the Philippines to Gibraltar made the long voyage of 12,000 miles under their own steam, arriving in October. The work they did was amazing, when their small size and age are considered. One of them, the Decatur, 420 tons displacement, which had been condemned as not seaworthy enough to venture out of sight of land, successfully negotiated the long voyage from Manila, and in service at Gibraltar steamed over 48,000 miles, making a total of 60,000 miles steaming before her departure for the United States.
The Wenonah, an armed yacht of hardly more than 200 tons, steamed in escort work 29,979 miles. The U. S. Coast Guard cutter Seneca, which arrived at Gibraltar September 4, 1917, escorted 600 ships in convoys, carrying total cargoes of 2,100,000 tons. These are only a few of the phenomenal records made.
United States naval vessels based on Gibraltar assisted in escorting 562 convoys, and 79 single ships, furnishing an average of fifty per cent of all escorts. Under way 46 per cent of the time and 68 per cent available at all times for operation, our vessels were, in addition to the Gibraltar-England service and danger zone escort, employed in escorting ships to Bizerta, Genoa, Oran and Marseilles. They maintained a monthly service to the Azores, escorted cable ships, and also did other odd jobs.