g against the foundation of
the Mole with every plunge, they were swept diagonally by machine-gun
fire from both ends of the Mole and by heavy batteries ashore. Commander
A.F.B. Carpenter (now Captain) conned _Vindictive_ from her open bridge
till her stern was laid in, when he took up his position in the
flame-thrower hut on the port side. It is to this hut that reference has
already been made; it is marvellous that any occupant of it should have
survived a minute, so riddled and shattered is it. Officers of _Iris_,
which was in trouble ahead of _Vindictive_, describe Captain Carpenter
as "handling her like a picket-boat."

[Sidenote: The _Vindictive's_ false high deck and gangways.]

_Vindictive_ was fitted along the port side with a high false deck,
whence ran the eighteen brows, or gangways, by which the storming and
demolition parties were to land. The men were gathered in readiness on
the main and lower decks, while Colonel Elliot, who was to lead the
Marines, waited on the false deck just abaft the bridge, and Captain
H.C. Halahan, who commanded the bluejackets, was amidships. The gangways
were lowered, and scraped and rebounded upon the high parapet of the
Mole as _Vindictive_ rolled; and the word for the assault had not yet
been given when both leaders were killed, Colonel Elliot by a shell and
Captain Halahan by the machine-gun fire which swept the decks. The same
shell that killed Colonel Elliot also did fearful execution in the
forward Stokes Mortar Battery.

[Sidenote: Landing on the Mole.]

"The men were magnificent." Every officer bears the same testimony. The
mere landing on the Mole was a perilous business; it involved a passage
across the crashing, splintering gangways, a drop over the parapet into
the field of fire of the German machine-guns which swept its length, and
a further drop of some sixteen feet to the surface of the Mole itself.
Many were killed and more were wounded as they crowded up to the
gangways; but nothing hindered the orderly and speedy landing by every
gangway.

Lieutenant H.T.C. Walker had his arm carried away by a shell on the
upper deck and lay in the darkness while the storming parties trod him
under. He was recognized and dragged aside by the Commander. He raised
his remaining arm in greeting, "Good luck to you," he called, as the
rest of the stormers hastened by; "good luck."

[Sidenote: The wounded and dying cheer.]

The lower deck was a shambles as the Commander mad