William Sims William Sowden Sims ( October 15 , 1858 – September 25 , 1936 ) was an admiral in the United States Navy who sought during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to modernize the navy . During World War I he commanded all United States naval forces operating in Europe . He also served twice as president of the Naval War College . Career . Sims was born to American parents living in Port Hope , Ontario , Canada . He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1880 , the beginnings of an era of naval reform and greater professionalization . Commodore Stephen B . Luce founded the Naval War College in Newport , Rhode Island , in 1884 , to be the service ' s professional school . During the same era , Naval War College instructor Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was writing influential books on naval strategy and sea power . Gunnery . As a young officer , Sims sought to reform naval gunnery by improving target practice . His superiors resisted his suggestions , failing to see the necessity . He was also hindered by his low rank . Never one to let obstacles stand in his way , Sims overcame the opposition by writing directly ( in 1902 ) to President Theodore Roosevelt . The President , who had previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy , was intrigued by Sims ' ideas and made him the navy ' s Inspector of Target Practice . On March 11 , 1916 , he became the first captain of the . First World War . When the United States entered World War I , then - Rear Admiral Sims was serving as president of the Naval War College . Just before the U . S . entered the war , the Wilson Administration sent him to London as the senior naval representative . After the U . S . entry in April 1917 , Sims was given command over U . S . naval forces operating from Britain . The major threat he faced was a highly effective German submarine campaign against freighters bringing vital food and munitions to the Allies . The combined Anglo - American naval war against U - boats in the western approaches to the British Isles in 1917 - 18 was a success in part due to the tact and ability of Sims to work smoothly with his British counterpart , Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly , in a very close and friendly working relationship based on mutual respect . Sims believed the Navy Department in Washington , which was effectively headed by Assistant Secretary Franklin D . Roosevelt , was failing to provide him with sufficient authority , information , autonomy , manpower , and naval forces . He ended the war as a vice admiral , in command of all U . S . naval forces operating in Europe . Attack on Daniels . In 1919 after the war ended in Allied victory , Sims publicly attacked the deficiencies of American naval strategy , tactics , policy , and administration . He charged the failures had cost the Allies 2 , 500 , 000 tons of supplies , thereby prolonging the war by six months . He estimated the delay had raised the cost of the war to the Allies by $ 15 billion , and that it led to the unnecessary loss of 500 , 000 lives . Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels was more of a politician than a naval strategist , but he ably countered the accusations . He pointed to Sims ' Anglophilism and said his vantage point in London was too narrow to assess accurately the overall war effort by the U . S . Navy . Daniels cited prewar naval preparations and strategy proposals made by other American leaders during the war to disprove Sims ' charges . Much of Sims ' criticism of naval administration was deemed valid by a Congressional panel , yet Sims failed in his attempt to discredit Daniels . Congress allowed the chief of naval operations to continue in a weakly subordinate role to the political civilian appointees — a disappointment to many naval professionals who believed an effective Navy had to be run by its ranking officer instead of by a politician with little naval or strategic knowledge . Despite the public acrimony , Sims emerged with his reputation unharmed and served a second tour as president of the Naval War College ( 1919 – 1922 ) . He retired in October 1922 . He died in Boston , Massachusetts , with the rank of full admiral . Honors . His account of the U . S . naval effort during World War I , " The Victory at Sea " , won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for History . In 1929 Sims received an LL . D . from Bates College . Columbia University conferred the honorary degree of doctor of laws upon Rear Admiral Sims on 2 June 1920 . Several weeks later , Williams College conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of laws during its June 21 , 1920 , commencement exercises . Several U . S . Navy vessels have been named for Sims . Three ships have been named , while a transport vessel was named . The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp panel on February 4 , 2010 , honoring 4 distinguished sailors . One of the stamps depicted Admiral Sims . In 1947 , the Naval War College acquired an existing barracks building and converted it to a secondary war gaming facility , naming it Sims Hall after former War College President . In 1957 Sims Hall became the primary center for the Naval War College ' s wargaming department , serving as such until 1999 .