The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain William Woodward Phelps, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. LEVIATHAN and the U.S.S. GREAT NORTHERN, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of transporting and escorting troops and supplies to European ports through waters infested with enemy submarines and mines during World War I.