up by M. L.-526, the other by the destroyer Whirlwind and the two officers and four men on the life-raft by M. L.-282, which had been brought right into the channel, under heavy fire.

The Iphigenia also had not succeeded in discharging all of her extra steaming watch and was therefore encumbered with extra men. She was subjected to shrapnel fire the same as the Intrepid, while approaching the Mole. Just as she rounded the lighthouse a star shell showed up the Intrepid headed for the canal and the Thetis aground. While passing towards the canal entrance she was holed twice; one shell cut the siren steam-pipe and thus the fore part of the ship was enveloped in steam.

The entrance became obscured by smoke so that the Iphigenia ran in between a dredge and barge. She cut them apart and pushed the barge ahead of her into the canal. At this point it was noted that the Intrepid was aground on the western bank with a gap between her and the eastern shore. Having cleared the barge, the Iphigenia went ahead full speed to close this gap and collided with the port bow of the Intrepid. But her beam was not sufficient to complete the blocking of the entrance at that point. She was backed clear of the Intrepid and her engines put full ahead. As soon as she gathered headway she was turned to port under hard left rudder assisted by her engines. She quickly grounded at the bow on the eastern bank and laid completely across the channel with her stern on the western shoal. At 12.45 a. m. the sinking charges were detonated and the crew abandoned ship in one cutter, overcrowded and damaged, which was picked up by the M. L.-282. All but three of the crew were taken aboard the motor launch, the cutter was secured to the bow and the launch backed out of the channel at full speed.

Inshore Covering Force.-The Trident and Mansfield, after parting company with the submarines, covered the western smokescreen flotilla; the Whirlwind, Myngs, Velox, Morris, Moorsom and Melpomene covered the eastern one. The Warwick, Phoebe and North Star cruised in the vicinity of the Mole to protect the Mole assaulting force from torpedo attack. The North Star lost her bearings in the smoke and emerged from the smokescreen to the southeastward of the lighthouse. She fired all of her torpedoes at some vessels moored alongside of the Mole and withdrew. But coming under a heavy fire at point blank range she was quickly disabled and soon in a sinking condition.

The Phoebe came to her rescue, circled her repeatedly, threw a smoke-screen around her and took her in tow twice; the first time the tow line was shot away and the second time it parted. Then the Phoebe went alongside to tow from that position, but as the North Star was rapidly settling she had to be abandoned, the former taking off all of her crew.

The flotilla of coastal motor boats after executing its smokescreen carried out independent attacks on the German vessels within the harbor. C. M. B.-5 attacked a destroyer which was under way and damaged her with a torpedo which struck below the forward searchlight, putting it out. C. M. B.-7 fired a torpedo at a destroyer moored to the Mole and struck her under the bridge. C. M. B.-32A struck the steamship Brussels with her torpedo. An explosion followed but the result was hidden. by smoke.

OSTEND. The blocking of the Ostend harbor entrance required two attempts, one on April 22-23, which failed, and the other in the early morning of May 10.

First Attack.-The attack on April 22-23 took place simultaneously with the one at Zeebrugge. The monitors and siege guns opened fire at 11.20 p. m. This bombardment was undoubtedly useful as a blind and kept down the fire on the smokescreen flotilla and the block ships. The smoke-screen was commenced at 11.40 p. m. with good results. However at 11.50 p. m., when the block ships were standing towards Stroom Bank Buoy, the wind suddenly shifted from the northwestward to the southwestward which greatly interfered with the subsequent actions. The smoke-flotilla tried to combat with this change, but was unsuccessful and was subjected to a heavy but ill-directed fire.

At midnight the block ships passed to the northward of Stroom Bank Buoy, where they first came under fire and laid a dead reckoning course for the pier ends, as no marks were visibledue to the smoke. This condition also made it necessary for the Sirius to keep close station on the Brilliant which was leading. When the Ostend piers should have been seen by the Brilliant breakers were sighted on her starboard bow and, although the rudder was put hard left, she grounded. The Sirius, observing this, put her rudder hard over and reversed full speed. However, as she was badly damaged by shell fire and sinking she did not answer the helm and collided with the port quarter

of the Brilliant. Both ships, being practically aground and in a sinking condition, were blown up and sank about 2400 yards east of the canal entrance. Most of both crews were picked up by M. L.-532, M. L.-276 and M. L.-283, each of the last two having gone alongside of one of the ships. C. M. B.-10 later went alongside of the Sirius and determined that none of her crew were left aboard. One small party from the Sirius left in a pulling boat and were picked up by the light cruiser Attentive, 13 miles from Ostend.

At 1.00 a. m. the retirement signal was given for the whole force. The covering force of destroyers cruised in the vicinity until daylight, searching for any of the small craft which might have been in need of assistance.

The failure of this attack was due to the unknown shifting of Stroom Bank Buoy about 2400 yards to the eastward and the fact that the adverse wind had so placed the smoke-screen that all marks, which might have retrieved the error of the buoy's position, were obliterated.

Second Attack.-The Vindictive was available for use as a block ship for a new attempt to block Ostend. Work of refitting her was commenced immediately at Dover in order to make the try on the same tide. This work was carried out night and day to completion by the desired date. Two hundred tons of cement were placed in her after magazines and upper bunkers, which was all that her draft would permit. However, the weather conditions were unfavorable and the action had to be postponed for about two weeks when the necessary conjunction of tide and darkness would again occur.

This delay allowed the securing of the old cruiser Sappho for a second block ship. She was fitted out in the same manner as the others at Chatham dockyard. The Germans on the other hand had considerably increased their force of destroyers at Zeebrugge.

The plan of attack was in general the same as the previous one except that the bombardment by the monitors, siege guns and airplanes was to be delayed until the approach of the attacking force was discovered. In order to assure the block ships reaching their destination it was arranged to place a million candle-power calcium flare near the entrance, to be used as a "last resort."

The conjunction of tide and darkness and favorable weather conditions in the evening of May 9, 1918, gave the first opportunity since April 23. Accordingly the force was assembled and the various units left for their stations. An off-shore coverforce of the destroyers Warwick, Whirlwind, Velox and Trident, from Dover, took up a cruising station midway between Zeebrugge and Ostend to prevent interference by the German flotilla from the former place. The block ships, their destroyer covering force and the smoke-screen flotilla assembled at Dunkirk. Under the command of Commodore Hubert Lynes, C. M. G., this force got under way in the early evening of May 9 and stood towards Ostend. Shortly after the Sappho left her anchorage in Dunkirk Roads, a man-hole joint in the side of a boiler blew out, reducing her speed to six knots and therefore putting her participation that night out of the question.

By 1.30 a. m., May 10, all the preliminary dispositions were completed and the smoke-screen flotillas of motor launches and coastal motor boats were sent in to commence the screen. At 1.35 a. m. no firing had occurred, but a searchlight lit up and commenced to search. At 1.43 a. m. the prearranged signal was given and a heavy bombardment opened up by the monitors' siege guns and airplanes. One division of monitors ran in close enough so that their secondary batteries could also come into action. About five minutes later the Germans commenced to return this fire.

The smoke screen was well laid in a western and an eastern section with a lane between them. While engaged in this work C. M. B.-24 and C. M. B.-30 carried out successful torpedo attacks against the pier ends. C. M. B.-22 encountered a German torpedo boat who turned on her searchlight and opened fire. The C. M. B. attacked her with her only armament-machine gunswith such good effect that she was driven away from the harbor

entrance.

At 2 a. m. the Germans opened a heavy fire from light guns and machine guns, apparently concentrating most of their efforts in a barrage across the harbor entrance. The inshore force of destroyers fired star shells over the entrance to light up the pier ends for the Vindictive and shelled the shore batteries in order to draw their fire and in which they were somewhat successful.

About the same time the Vindictive accompanied by C. B. M.-23, C. B. M.-25 and C. B. M.-26, left Stroom Bank Buoy close on the port hand and stood towards the harbor entrance for 13 minutes. At this time the darkness and smoke had reduced visibility to about one and a half cable lengths. As the entrance was not sighted she slowed down to nine knots and altered course to the westward, parallel to the shore. Failing to pick up the pier ends, she counter-marched to starboard. This in turn brought no success so she again altered course 16 points to starboard and gave the signal for "the last resort." C. M. B.-23 lighted a million candle-power flare close inshore to the westward of the entrance. The smoke and fog, which had then settled down, dimmed the effect of the flare so that while it lighted up the piers for the Vindictive the small craft remained ill-defined or invisible to the Germans, except at closest range.

The Vindictive then became clearly visible to the shore batteries and she was subjected to a heavy fire. However, she had only 200 yards to go and immediately turned for the entrance. At this point her smoke boxes were lighted. Having passed the pier ends close to the eastern side the ship was given full left rudder and the port engine was backed full speed. However, as the port propeller had been damaged against the Mole at Zeebrugge it had little effect. As soon as the ship stopped swinging the sinking charges were exploded and she quickly sank with her bow close to the eastern pier and lying athwart the channel at an angle of about 25 degrees. It had been intended to ram the western pier so that the tide could have assisted in swinging the ship across the channel, but when the Vindictive found. the entrance she was so close to the eastern pier that swinging her to starboard would probably have caused her to ground broadside on.

In the meantime the Vindictive's other two escorts, C. M. B.-25 and C. M. B.-26, had torpedoed the pier ends and attacked them. with machine guns. This mission accomplished, they drew off.

As soon as the block ship began to sink M. L.-254 and M. L.-276 stood in the entrance, engaging both piers with their machine guns, and went alongside of her to take off the crew. A thorough search of the ship was made and all of the wounded were brought off. During this operation M. L.-276 was hit in fifty-five places but kept under way, steering to the westward,