BLOCKING OSTEND HARBOUR

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1928, Page 8

BLOCKING OSTEND HARBOUR

END OF THE VINDICTIVE. In Blackwood’s Magazine for August Mr B. Meakins tells the story of the blocking of Ostend Harbour by the Vindictive. “On the evening of May 10, 1918, two monitors cleared the devastated harbour of Dunkirk. At the same time the Vindictive weighed her anchor in the Roads and steamed for Ostend Harbour,” says Mr Meakins. “We are steaming along the same old channels that Drake used when he drove the Armada into the Northern Seas. No bells are rung now nor bugles blown. Lights are doused co a bare necessity. Anything may •happen now, for we are within range of the shore batteries, ( and there may be hostile ships on guard. Men are therefore sent to their action stations in turret and stokehold. At last everything is ready. It is curious how quiet the men grow when going into auction. They do> not wish to talk,; they carry out their work in a detached, thoughtful manner. Now the' telegraphs jangle below. Ihe ship slows to a stop, and then the anchors are lowered quietly fore and aft, thus making a fixed fort and target. While we wait for the action to commence our thoughts go out to the gallant Vindictive steaming through i

night to her goal, and grave. Time Slips towards zero, and now the 12nch gun turret comes sliding noiselessly round, pointing towards tlie unseen target of the *j.-inch guns of the Tirpitz battery on the end of the Ostend front. With a loud hiss one of the huge barrels rises up into the night—‘Ready! Fire> ’—crash. The red tongues of the flame lick along the low banks of the smoke screen that hides us. Our eyes <uid liiouths die filled with the acrid burning dust of the discharge. Half stunned, we clap our jhands to our ears. Now away to port our sister ship joins in the action. The four-inch guns below our bridge join, in with rapid firing, and the peaceful night has become a sudden hell of noise and flame.

“ Suddenly away in the night ahead leap out the sword-like beams of the German searchlights. Anxiously the' ‘ bunch ’ into one great glowing spot siveep across the dark waters, searching for the attacker at their very gate. Now with a swift leap they ‘hunch’ into one growing glowing spot and halt. The have found the Vindictive at the harbour entrance. Now with every gun that he can get to bear, the enemy opens fire on her, and to our anxious eyes the place has become a volcano of flame. There drifts out to our ears the muffled fury of the guns, menacing deathly. • God help her ! Our fingers clinch in their helplessness; our eyes ache as we watch the tragic fate of our shipmates going to their certain death unarmed. Our guns redouble their efforts to try and | pat down those deadly guns but not for’ one instant does the terrible, drumfire cease. High up above our heads a star sliell bursts with a mighty crack, shedding a fierce glare and showing us up as if in broad daylight. We know what it portends. Suddenly through the night come thundering and shrieking the 'first, of the enemy shells. Faster and faster they, come, and we can see by the gigantic splashes that they are salvoes of about a dozen large shells. Nearer and nearer the ghostly columns of water creep towards the ship, for it is the enemy’s method to rake a whole area so that nothing can possibly escape. The captain for the first time m,akes Tiimself known. ‘Tell that motor, boat to put up more smoke,’ he orders, and th'e signalman.’ flashes his lamp into the foggy blackness, but without result. Ihe pension grows greater and an uncanny silem-e seems to brood on the ship. The gunners of the four-inch guns squeeze into their gun shields. Me on the bridge lie down on the flat steel fleck and wait. A salvo arrives and drop ', ed ‘dead’ by the stern, making the lifeboats slung over there leap and rattle with concussion. We catch a glimpse of towering columns of foam and water rising like gigantic mushrooms into the night. Another salvo we hears its heightening’roar —surely this is the end! Terrific explosions on both sides of the ship; a shock that runs her whole length; the sudden snapping out of lights-, the clatter of shell splinters against the mast and funnel 1; the falling of water from a height—and we breathe again. By a miracle all have escaped destruction. Then the ship gets under weigh and steams towards the enemy, a maneouvre that outwits him eomplete]v. With great relief we hear her shells go roaring overhead. “We cruise about until with the pale lemon streaks of dawn there flumes towards us out of the haze a riddled and sinking motor boat filled with the dead and wounded survivors of the sunken Vindicative. A lieutenant of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in charge of a motor boat that went to take off the crew of the Vindicative managed to save many men and was escaping out of the hari.our when he thought he heard a cry for help come from the sinking slim. Ho turned his boat about, and at the moment was struck by a shell, but with his leg blown off and' other injuries he returned and saved several more men. Could the old gods do