channel
at Zeebrugge, also from the report of the British Admiralty, is as
follows:--

"The _Thetis_ came first, steaming into a tornado of shells from great
batteries ashore. All her crew, save a remnant who remained to steam
her in and sink her, already had been taken off her by a ubiquitous
motor launch, but the remnant spared hands enough to keep her four guns
going. It was hers to show the road to the _Intrepid_ and the
_Iphigenia_, which followed. She cleared a string of armed barges
which defends the channel from the tip of the mole, but had the ill
fortune to foul one of her propellers upon a net defense which flanks
it on the shore side.

"The propeller gathered in the net, and it rendered her practically
unmanageable. Shore batteries found her and pounded her unremittingly.
She bumped into the bank, edged off, and found herself in the channel
again still some hundreds of yards from the mouth of the canal in
practically a sinking condition. As she lay she signaled invaluable
directions to others, and her commander, R. S. Sneyed, also accordingly
blew charges and sank her. Motor launches under Lieutenant Littleton
raced alongside and took off her crew. Her losses were five killed and
five wounded.

"The _Intrepid_, smoking like a volcano and with all her guns blazing,
followed. Her motor launch failed to get alongside outside the harbor,
and she had men enough for anything. Straight into the canal she
steered, her smoke blowing back from her into the _Iphigenia's_ eyes,
so that the latter was blinded, and, going a little wild, rammed a
dredger, with her barge moored beside it, which lay at the western arm
of the canal. She was not clear, though, and entered the canal pushing
the barge before her. It was then that a shell hit the steam
connections of her whistle, and the escape of the steam which followed
drove off some of the smoke and let her see what she was doing.

"Lieutenant Stuart Bonham Carter, commanding the _Intrepid_, placed the
nose of his ship neatly on the mud of the western bank, ordered his
crew away, and blew up his ship by switches in the chart room. Four
dull bumps were all that could be heard, and immediately afterward
there arrived on deck the engineer, who had been in the engine room
during the explosion, and reported that all was as it should be.

"Lieutenant E. W. Bullyard Leake, commanding the _Iphigenia_, beached
her according to arrangements on the eastern side, blew