Lieutenant 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. Lieutenant Leake, commanding the Iphigenia, beached her according
to arrangement on the eastern side, blew her up, saw her drop nicely
across the canal, and left her with her engines still going to hold her
in position till she should have bedded well down on the bottom.
According to the latest reports from air observation the two old ships,
with their holds full of concrete, are lying across the canal in a
V-position, and it is probable that the work they set out to do has been
accomplished and that the canal is effectively blocked."
At Ostend an attempt was also made to block the canal on the same night,
but it was unsuccessful owing to a shift of wind which blew away the
smoke screen behind which the British craft were acting, and enabled the
German gun fire to destroy the flares which had been lit to mark the
entrance to the harbor. The cruisers tried to act by guess work, and one
of the block ships was sunk, but it was not in a position to obstruct
the canal.
On May 9th another attempt was made, and the Vindictive, filled with
concrete was sunk in the Ostend channel.
This daring exploit of the English fleet, though it had destroyed the
value of Zeebrugge and Ostend as submarine bases, had left the Germans
in possession.
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