According to our information, as shown by the figures given above, the Germans had completed by October, 1918, a total of 326 submarines of all classes, exclusive of those destroyed by them in November at Bruges, Pola and Cattaro.

Admiral von Capelle informed the Reichstag Committee that a total of 810 was ordered before and during the war.  It follows from that statement that over 400 must have been under construction or contemplated at the time of the Armistice.

It is understood that the number of submarines actually building at the end of 1918 was, however, only about 200, which perhaps was the total capacity of the German shipyards at one time.

At the risk of repetition it is as well to repeat here the figures giving the quarterly losses of merchant ships during 1917 and 1918, as they indicate in another and effective way the influence of the anti-submarine measures.

These figures are: 

1917

British.         Foreign.         Total.
1st quarter      911,840         707,533       1,519,373
2nd quarter    1,361,870         875,064       2,236,934
3rd quarter      952,938         541,535       1,494,473
4th quarter      782,887         489,954       1,272,843

1918

British.         Foreign.         Total.
1st quarter      697,668         445,668       1,143,336
2nd quarter      630,862         331,145         962,007
3rd quarter      512,030         403,483         915,513
4th quarter       83,952          93,582         177,534

Figures for 4th quarter are for Month of October only.

The decline of the losses of British shipping was progressive from the second quarter of 1917; in the third quarter of 1918 the reduction in the tonnage sunk became very marked, and suggested definitely the approaching end of the submarine menace.

The fact that during the second quarter of 1918 the world’s output of tonnage overtook the world’s losses was another satisfactory feature.  The output for 1917 and 1918 is shown in the following table: 

United Dominions,
Kingdom Allied and Total for
Output.  Neutral World. 
Countries.
1917
1st quarter 246,239 340,807 587,046 2nd quarter 249,331 435,717 685,048 3rd quarter 248,283 426,778 675,061 4th quarter 419,621 571,010 990,631

1918
1st quarter             320,280        550,037          870,317
2nd quarter             442,966        800,308        1,243,274
3rd quarter             411,395        972,735        1,384,130
4th quarter, Oct. only  136,100        375,000          511,100

It will be noticed that by the last quarter of 1918 the output of shipping in the United Kingdom alone had overtaken the losses of British shipping.