FROM BRUGES TO ZEEBRUGGE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 188, 29 April 1918, Page 4

FROM BRUGES TO ZEEBRUGGE

A TOPICAL KEMINISCENCE. One bright euuimer's day some five of sis years ago I stepped on to the little steamer that plied between Bruges and Zcebruggo, and landed at the latter place, 20 yards from the lock gates (writes tho Rev. 11. 0. Fenton, in the j Dunedin "Star"). A lhandbag contained I the necessary part of my worldly possessions, and Belgium lay at my disposal. Should I encamp at Blankenbergho, Hoyst, Knocko? 1 strolled down i tho digue (in England it could Dot have I escaped being called tho Marine Parade), ! an asphalted esplanade that looked for- ! ward to a future not yet in sight. For it must have been nearly a juilo long and quito 50 yards wide; and it appeared incongruous wheu ono regarded tho row of six housee which formed , the residential area on the sea front. One of these six houses was an hotel, and here, for some absolutely unpremeditated reason, I stayed for a week. How the naval raid brings back tho ecene! First, the mole, whose length of a mile and three-nuarters is eo deceptive when cue imagines ono can easily stroll to the erd and back, in half an hour aftor dinnor. Extond your left hand and crook the first finger, and you get an idea of its shape. Tho part of the knucJlo near/ the thumb re-present tho portion of the mole whoro Uie railway lino is supported on piles. This is to allow tho tide to scour away the sand. The rest of the pier is concrete It was at these piles that ono of our submarines was exploded, thus isolating n mile- and a half ot concrete mole from the mainland. Shorewards tho railway led past tho flag tower and Customhouse, to a, platform labelled "Zeebrugge," near which was being finished an enormous hotel in white- stone. This wns to accommodate tho passengers who came over from tho North of England in tho boat direct from Hull. On the Mt of the railway lies the Bruges Canal, Bruges being about nino miles awny. Tlio main coast road, and Die railway line from Brussels to Heyst, aro carried across tho canal on swinq bridges. Standing on one of these, with one's back to tho land, one notices the canal bonding seawards between two, light wooden piers. Between tihosc piers tho two obsoloto cruisers filled with cement will havo been sunk, 'thus blocking (;!ie fainvny. Tlio wator is c-nito shallow at low'(id*. . Tf the lock gales havo been destroyed, as later accounts anoin to indicate, tho material damage willM'im inio a vast sum, and the rannl, now exposed (o the considerable riso and fall of the lide, will bo useless for traffic purposes. Tf our airmen can v'tvent their repair Iho value of the raid is Fcaiwly measurable. Zeobrugge was a slocp.v place as ono could imagine. During the German occupation it must havo blossomed into a. naval baeo of ■humming activity. Barges from Bruges (and further afield) and trains from Oi>rinnny via Liege would bring up submarines in sections and all the paraphernalia of war. Prom a villago unmentioiu'd in guide books, Zeebrugso hns Achieved a flicho in history.