On October 12, 1917, Emperor William of Germany, accompanied by Prince August Wilhelm and Foreign Secretary Dr. von Kühlmann, paid an official visit to Ferdinand in Sofia. The streets and houses were profusely decorated and much festivity prevailed.
PART VII—NAVAL AND AIR WARFARE
CHAPTER XXXIV
ON THE SEA
As in the past, naval warfare during the six months' period, August, 1917, to February, 1918, consisted primarily of attacks by German submarines on units of the allied merchant marine. There was again a wide discrepancy between the figures published by the allied and German governments. An example of this are the respective totals of monthly tonnage losses for the year 1917.
| German Claim | Allied Claim | |
| January | 439,500 | |
| February | 781,000 | 812,000 |
| March | 885,000 | 600,000 |
| April | 1,091,000 | 788,000 |
| May | 869,000 | 549,000 |
| June | 1,016,000 | 758,000 |
| July | 811,000 | 463,000 |
| August | 808,000 | 591,000 |
| September | 673,000 | 455,000 |
| October | 674,000 | 470,000 |
| November | 607,000 | 435,000 |
| December | 816,000 | 514,000 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| 9,470,500 | 6,435,000 |
Continuous detailed figures of losses are available only regarding the British and American merchant marines. Between August, 1917, and February, 1918, the British weekly losses were as follows:
| Week ending | 1,600 tons and over | Under 1,600 tons | Fishing vessels |
| August 5 | 21 | 2 | 0 |
| August 12 | 14 | 2 | 3 |
| August 19 | 15 | 3 | 2 |
| August 26 | 18 | 5 | 0 |
| September 2 | 20 | 3 | 0 |
| September 9 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| September 16 | 8 | 20 | 1 |
| September 23 | 13 | 2 | 2 |
| September 30 | 11 | 2 | 0 |
| October 7 | 14 | 2 | 3 |
| October 14 | 12 | 6 | 1 |
| October 21 | 17 | 8 | 0 |
| October 28 | 14 | 4 | 0 |
| November 4 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| November 11 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| November 18 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| November 25 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| December 1 | 16 | 1 | 4 |
| December 8 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| December 15 | 14 | 3 | 1 |
| December 22 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| December 29 | 18 | 3 | 0 |
| January 6 | 18 | 3 | 4 |
| January 13 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| January 20 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| January 27 | 9 | 6 | 1 |
| —— | —— | —— | |
| 334 | 116 | 30 |
On August 14, 1917, it was also officially stated in the House of Commons that since the beginning of the war and up to June 30, 1917, a total of 9,748 lives were lost on British merchantman as the result of U-boat attacks, mine and other explosions. Of these 3,828 were passengers of all nationalities and 5,920 officers and seamen.
During the same period the following twenty-six American vessels were sunk by submarines: