f his crew of the destroyer _Comet_: "Just as it was getting
dark our seaplane dropped on the water alongside of us and told
Lieutenant Commander Cookson that the Turks were on the run, but that
a little farther up the river they had placed obstructions across, so
that we could not pass without clearing it away. This turned out to be
the liveliest time that I have had since we began fighting. It was
very dark when we started off, the _Comet_ leading, and the _Shaitan_
and _Sumana_ following. When we got around the head of land the Turks
opened fire with rifles, but we steamed up steadily to the
obstruction. The Turks were then close enough to us to throw hand
bombs, but luckily none reached the deck of our ship.

"During all this time we weren't asleep. We fired at them with guns
and rifles, and the _Shaitan_ and _Sumana_ were also blazing away. Our
troops ashore said it was a lively sight to see all our guns working.

"We found that the obstruction was a big wire across the river, with
boats made fast to it. An attempt to sink the center dhow of the
obstruction by gunfire having failed, Lieutenant Commander Cookson
ordered the _Comet_ to be placed alongside and himself jumped on to
the dhow with an ax and tried to cut the wire hawsers connecting it
with two other craft forming the obstruction. He was shot in seven
places and when we dragged him over his last words were: 'I am done;
it is a failure. Return at full speed!' He never spoke afterward. We
had six wounded, but none seriously."

The adventure which had cost the British the loss of a brave officer
was not a failure, as this writer concludes: "We must have frightened
the Turks, because on going up the river again about daybreak (after
we had buried our commander) we found the Turks had cleared out and
retired farther up the river. So we steamed up after them and when we
reached Kut-el-Amara we found the army there." The friendly but keen
rivalry that existed between the two services is amusingly shown in
the sea-man's final comment, "This is the first place that the army
has got ahead of the navy."

A little later the gunboats were ordered to pursue the fleeing Turks.
The _Shaitan_ and the _Sumana_ grounded on uncharted mud banks and
were unable to proceed, but the _Comet_ continued on its way and
forced the Turks to leave several dhows behind them laden with
military stores, provisions, and ammunition.

Kut-el-Amara, the Arab town which General Townshend w