t, Zeebrugge harbour was full
of a smoke screen, of concrete-loaded block-ships, and of darting motor
boats; while the old cruiser _Vindictive_ made straight for the mole.
Instantly the monitors and aircraft were left alone, while every German
gun that could be brought to bear was turned on to this new and far
more dangerous enemy at hand. But the British won through. The three
block-ships were sunk. The submarine used as a torpedo blew up the
bridge joining the mole to the land; and the smoke screen worked fairly
well. Still, the tornado of German shells was almost more than flesh
and blood could stand. Meanwhile the old _Vindictive_ ran alongside
the mole and dropped her eighteen special gangways bang against it. In
a moment her forlorn hope--her whole crew was one great forlorn
hope--swarmed on to the mole, over the splintering gangways, while her
guns roared defiance at the huge German batteries. The ground swell
made the _Vindictive_ roll and racked her breaking gangways terribly.
The storm of German shells and the hail of machine-gun bullets seemed
almost to be sweeping everything before them. An officer awaiting his
turn on deck asked, "What are all those men lying down for?" and was
answered, "All dead, Sir"; killed before they had started. Several
gangways were smashed to pieces, the men on them falling between the
_Vindictive_ and the mole. The Germans on the mole fired furiously to
keep the storming party back. But, with an eager courage no Viking
could have beaten, and with a trained skill no Viking could have
equalled, every seaman and Marine in that heroic party who was not
killed or disabled pressed on till the flaming battery was silenced.
Then the survivors swarmed back with all the wounded they could find,
climbed over the few broken gangways still holding together, and turned
to the work of getting clear. At last the _Vindictive_, though a mere
mangled wreck, got off and limped home victorious with all that was
left of the equally daring flotilla of small craft.

Zeebrugge was the bigger base on the Belgian coast. But Ostend
remained; and both were connected by canals with Bruges, which stood
several miles inland. The whole formed a triple base shaped like the
letter V, with Bruges at the bottom, Zeebrugge (sea-Bruges) to the
right, and Ostend to the left. To close only Zeebrugge was to leave
the back door open. So Ostend was raided, and smashed later on, the
old _Vindictive_, now past