later started on its first mine-planting "excursion." On this excursion,
June 7, the squadron planted a mine field 47 miles long, containing
3,400 mines, in three hours and thirty-six minutes. One ship emptied
herself of 675 mines without a single break, 1 mine every eleven and
one-half seconds through more than two hours, the longest series ever
planted anywhere.

On the seventh excursion, August 26, the commander of the mine force,
Rear-Admiral Strauss, U.S.N., went out, and on the next, by the American
and British squadrons together, he was in command of them both, on the
_San Francisco_. The mine field on this occasion closed the western end
of the barrier off the Orkneys, making it complete across. Of the ninth
excursion Rear-Admiral Clinton-Baker, R.N., was in command. Altogether
the American squadron made fifteen excursions, the British squadron
eleven, and when the barrage was finished, at the end of October, 70,100
mines in all had been planted in it, of which 56,570 were American. The
barrier stretched from off the northern Orkney Islands, 230 miles, to
the coast of Norway, near Bergen. Its width averaged 25 miles, nowhere
less than 15 miles--more than an hour's run for a submarine.

The barrage began to yield results early in July, and from time to time
reports would come of submarines damaged or disappearing. It may never
be known definitely how many actually did come to grief there, but the
best information gives a probable ten before the middle of October, with
a final total of seventeen or more. In addition the squadron should be
credited with two submarines lost in the field of British mines laid by
the U.S.S. _Baltimore_, off the Irish coast.

In summing up the work of the navy throughout the war one month after
the armistice had been signed, Secretary Daniels paid the highest