The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Ensign Francis K. Gundlach, United States Navy (Reserve Force), for distinguished service in the line of his profession for remaining on board the U.S.S. Idomeneus, on which he was detailed a signal master, after that ship had been torpedoed by an enemy submarine on 15 September 1917, and abandoned by her crew, when it was found that there was a possibility of her remaining afloat.