Thank you, I am glad of your company

Dead Wake by Erik Larson. The Last Crossing of the Lusitania is the subtitle. Page 343.

The consequences of the sinking of the Lusitania were two years coming. When they came, they were decisive.

Just ten days later, the U.S. Navy dispatched a squadron of destroyers. They set off from Boston on April 24. Not many of them. Just six. But the significance of their departure was lost on no one.

On the morning of May 4, 1917, anyone standing atop the Old Head of Kinsale would have seen an extraordinary sight. First there appeared six plumes of dark smoke, far off on the horizon. The day was unusually clear, the sea a deep blue, the hills emerald, very much like a certain day two years earlier. The ships became steadily more distinct. Wasplike with their long slender hulls, these were ships not seen in these waters before. They approached in a line, each flying a large American flag. To the hundreds of onlookers by now gathered on shore, many also carrying American flags, it would be a sight they would never forget and into which they read great meaning. These were the descendants of the colonials returning now at Britain’s hour of need, the moment captured in an immediately famous painting by Bernard Gribble, The Return of the Mayflower. American flags hung from homes and public buildings. A British destroyer, the Mary Rose, sailed out to meet the inbound warships, and signaled, “Welcome to the American colors.” To which the American commander answered, “Thank you, I am glad of your company.”

On May 8, the destroyers began their first patrols, just a day beyond the two-year anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania.

The Return of the Mayflower, 4th May, 1917 by Bernard Gribble

Click to enlarge.