Background
William Sims was born in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, on October 15, 1858.
William Sims was born in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, on October 15, 1858.
He was graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1880. Later he was as a student at the Naval War College in Newport, R. I. (1911 - 1913).
After graduation he served in the Atlantic (1880 - 1888) and the Pacific (1889 - 1897). He was American naval attaché in Paris during the Spanish-American War. After additional service as attaché in St. Petersburg, Russia, and further duty at sea, he became inspector of target practice for the U. S. Asiatic fleet.
He first came to public notice when he argued vigorously that gunnery was ineffective and in need of modernization. President Theodore Roosevelt made him his naval aide (1907 - 1909). In 1909 Sims assumed command of the battleship Minnesota.
In 1917, after Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare against noncombatant vessels, Rear Adm. Sims was dispatched to Europe to establish contact with the naval staffs of the Allies. On April 28 he assumed command of American naval forces in European waters, rising to vice admiral a month later. Various controversies with the Navy Department deeply angered Sims, but he remained at his post.
Throughout 1917-1918 Sims tried to make the American fleet an effective adjunct of the British fleet, especially in the submarine war, and to provide naval support for the American Army in France. An advocate of close inter-Allied cooperation, he became a leading spirit in the Allied Naval Council, set up in 1917 to coordinate the naval operations of the Western coalition.
After the war Sims resumed the presidency of the Naval War College (1919 - 1922). In 1920 he presented an angry report to Congress criticizing the wartime conduct of the Navy Department for its failure to react promptly against Germany's submarine warfare.
He died in Boston on Sept. 28, 1936.
He successfully commanded United States naval forces in European waters during World War I and was promoted to full admiral. He also served twice as president of the Naval War College. His famous book The Victory at Sea, based on his experiences in World War I, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. Sims is, possibly, the only career naval officer to win a Pulitzer Prize.
He received Navy Distinguished Service Medal. Several U. S. Navy vessels have been named for Sims. Three ships have been named USS Sims, while a transport vessel was named USS Admiral W. S. Sims.
Admiral
