July 19, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
Admiral Sims 
By Henry Reuterdahl 
The writer of this appreciation of Admiral Sims has been 
his friend for many years. Mr. Reuterdahl is America's 
most distinguished marine painter. We are indebted to his 
brush for the portrait of the Admiral reproduced on this page 
A New York, June 1917. 
LITTLE while ago ex-President Taft said to a 
friend of his : " The ways of history are curious 
Wien I was President, I reprimanded a naval 
L.ofhcer for saying the very thing he is doing just 
now. That officer was Commander Sims, now Vice- Admiral." 
On December 3, 1910, Sims, as commander of the battleship 
Minnesota, during a banquet at the Guildhall, given 
by the Lord Mayor of London to the visitiiv 
American Squadron, in the course of a 
speech remarked : " If the time ever 
comes when the British Empire is 
seriously menaced by an external 
enemy, it is my opinion that you 
may count upon every man, every 
doUar, every drop of blood of your 
kindred across the seas." 
A hundred years ago and more, 
Americans fought the British in 
high sea duels. It was clean, 
manly fighting, officers in 
cocked hats and gold lace, 
men stripped to the buff. To- 
day, American tars and British 
seamen are fighting side by 
side like a band of brothers, 
fighting the common enemy 
for world democracy and the 
freedom of the seas, fighting 
the Huns for decency and 
civilisation. 
Canadian born, William 
Sowden Sims, Vice-Admiral in 
the United States Navy, leads 
the American squadrons, the 
first naval officer to get on the 
job. In the cabin of the U.S.S, 
Melville, or from a desk ashore, 
he directs the tactics of the new 
slayers of the U-boat, American 
fighting craft patrolling the Atlantic, 
searching for the U-boat sea-wolf. 
His destroyer officers and crews, doc- 
trinated by Admiral Sims himself in 
thinking in " flotilla " terms, carry out the 
identical ideas which he formulated recently 
when in command of the 
American Torpedo Flotilla. 
His motto " Cheer up and get 
busy," made practicable what 
he is doing to-day. Admiral Sims belongs to the silent workers, 
themidnight oil-burners,, the constructors of big things. So far 
as the public is concerned, he is the X of the American Navy, 
known to his confreres only, but, of course, well-known to the 
British Admiralty, and heretofore almost unknown to the 
man in the street whether in New York or London. When 
war broke out and the Navy Department laid down the 
strategy and tactics for the operations of the United States 
Navy in this war, it is safe to assume that orders were drawn 
for Admiral Sims to proceed abroad and corffer with the 
Allied Admiralties, and later to command our first naval 
force in British water. With wisdom Mr. Daniels picked the 
right man. Because of the Admiral's high, professional 
standing and his close affiliation with the British Admiralty 
he is the logical choice. But saVe for the bare announcement 
that the Admiral was to lead our naval mission in Europe, 
the American press had little tdsay about him, for the simple 
reason that they knew hardly anything about him. Naval 
officers rarely talk for publication-^Sims never does. 
Yarns of the great captains of industry have been spun ; 
statesmen and clever politicians have had their laurels ; 
but even the sketchiest story of the biggest man that the 
modern American Navy has produced is as yet untold. 
America's most distinguished naval officer is incognito- to his 
own people. Few outside Army circles knew much of 
General Gocthals until he built the Canal. In peace, we 
mildly ignore our military men, in war we build them arches 
of honour, and anoint theto as heroes so that sculptors may 
make monuments and spoil good scenery.' That is because we 
Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, U.S.N. 
are unmilitary : we are not a seafaring people. Imagine 
Schwab, Hoover, Vanderhp or anyone of our leaders in civil 
hfe being practically unknown. 
To a man, naval officers believe that Suns (whom I have 
known intimately for seventeen years) laid the foundation to 
the Navy's efficiency. He put the new American Navy 
upon the seas. He made it efficient. To revert to 
slang, he put "gun in gunnery." He made the ships hit 
the target and he tore to tatters the honest, but old-fashioned 
bureaucracy of yesterday. He destroyed, but he built up. 
The old days ! Beautiful, high-sparred ships, as g'raceful 
spots in the landscape, coiled ropes, lovely white decks, 
shining brass, skipper running a " taut " ship, with 
everybody scared to death of the "old man "; 
the quarter-deck often roped off so as not 
to disturb the slumbers of that worthy; 
the crew, when on liberty, more or less 
half seas over; "spit and polish." 
Nobody thought of war. Target 
practice just dirtied things up : 
" Chuck the blooming things over- 
board, why mess the decks." Such 
was the atmosphere of the Ameri- 
can Navy when Sims became a 
midshipman, no better, no worse 
than any other navy. 
When Sims, as a youngster, 
served in the Tennessee, a fine 
old wooden tub, he found the 
steerage, the quarters of the 
midshipmeh, reeking with foul 
air from bad ventilation. He 
complained to the captain. 
" As humans we are each en- 
titled to so many cubic feet of 
pure air," quoth young Sims, 
looking the old seadog square 
in the face. " The devil you 
say — get to your quarters, and 
remember, ,'young squirt, that 
there ain't anything human 
about a midshipman," bellowed 
his ^superior. But Midshipman 
Sims wrote an official letter. His 
recommendation was of course 
disapproved by the skipper. But in 
due course of time the Navy Depart- 
ment saw the justice of the complaint 
and the steerage was made larger and 
properly ventilated. 
As a junior, he performed his duties well, 
his shipmates say, but with- 
out any particular distinction. 
Like most officers of those days, 
he knew little of the great 
navies and with many believed that the American Navy was as 
good as, or even better than any. He was an instructor in navi- 
gation on a Philadelphia schoolship. But he woke up. As 
naval attache in Paris during the Spanish War he got the inside 
touch of what the big navies were doing. He saw a great 
light. In 1900, a " young" lieutenant (42 years old) reported 
for duty on board the Kentucky, at Gibraltar, bound for the 
Far East. It was Sims, tall and black, with a Henri Quatre 
beard, looking more French than American. For three 
years, as naval attache, he had sent hundreds of reports to 
the Office of Naval Intelligence. He had seen with his own 
eyes the superiority of foreign ships. His reports were truth- 
ful, but not nice reading for the conservatives at home. 
America's naval success in the Spanish War over an enemy 
already defeated by his own weakness, inoculated all hands 
with an extraordinary conceit. And the naval decay that 
followed the Civil War was again repeated in a smaller mea- 
sure after Santiago. With it came a contagion of self-ad- 
miration to which all hands fell victims. Fore and aft the 
haloes shone brighter than any bright work. The press took 
up the chorus and all at once we were made to understand 
that at sea we could conquer the world. 
The Kentucky's captain thought she was a fine ship. She 
was the pride of the Navy. Sims felt otherwise and unlashed 
his typewriter. With two fingers (the Admiral is still a two 
finger artist on the machine) he hammered the Kentucky 
to bits. He pointed out that, aside from floating, she was no 
ship at all, and he catalogued the battleship's defects. The 
report reached the Department. Sims argued over the 
