evidence: Navy personnel tend to a Curtiss H-16 flying boat at the Naval Air Station Lough Foyle in Ireland. (NHHC, UA 557.05) [...] Although the majority of the Navy’s efforts in Ireland were focused on the southern coast, the Navy also installed one air base on the north coast in Lough Foyle. Located between County Donegal and County Londonderry, the station allowed the Navy to patrol over the North Channel entrance into the Irish Sea. The combination of bases in southern Ireland and the base at Lough Foyle enabled the Navy to monitor all entry points of the Irish Sea, without which a U-boat could enter the waters between Ireland and Britain and target vessels near Belfast, Dublin, and Liverpool. As such, the base was vital to the Navy’s mission against Germany. [...] The Lough Foyle station was the first U.S. naval air station in Ireland to receive Curtiss H-16s ready for action, and it became fully operational on 3 September 1918. In its two months of operation, the base never reached its original expectations. Terrible weather conditions resulted in pilots conducting significantly fewer patrols than the bases at Queenstown and Wexford. Even though there were seven seaplanes at Lough Foyle Station, the pilots only completed 41 flights spanning 6,000 miles over 99 hours.[30]