Sims learned destroyer command culture from Lewis Bayly

Sims's account of Admiral Lewis Bayly at Queenstown presents a model for commanding an expanding destroyer force. The United States needed senior destroyer officers faster than it could develop that experience within its own fleet, making an effective foreign example useful. Bayly demanded results and accepted no excuses, but Sims also portrays a well-read man who knew a great deal about the Americans' own country. Successful work led to close and affectionate relations with their British operational commander. When British destroyers left to reinforce the Channel and North Sea, the Queenstown destroyer force became almost exclusively American while continuing to work with other British vessels. Bayly defended those ships and their crews against outside interference, and officers came to him with personal troubles as well as operational matters.