The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Ralph Elton Pope, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Surveyor engaged in convoy duty in the Mediterranean on 15 May 1918, when the Surveyor with the U.S.S. Wheeling and U.S.S. Venetia encountered a submarine and attacked with depth charges with the result that the submarine is believed to have been sunk.