It was hers to show the road
to the Intrepid and 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 blew charges
and sank it. Motor launches took off her crew. The Intrepid, smoking
like a volcano, and with all her guns blazing, followed. Her motor
launch had 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, ran into the 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 steam which followed drove off some of the smoke, and let
her see what she was doing.
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