We lowered a skiff and stood by while the commander touched off the fuse and then tumbled into the skiff and pushed off. By bad luck the propeller fouled the exhaust pipe and left us with only two oars and two minutes to get away. The enemy lights were on us, and the machine guns were firing from the shore. Before we made 200 yards the submarine went up, and there was a tremendous flash and roar, and lots of concrete from the mole fell around us. Luckily, we were not struck. Photographs taken from an airplane a few days later showed that the effort to block the canal entrance had been successful. The Intrepid and Iphigenia had reached the precise positions in which they were intended to be sunk, while the exploded submarine had blown a gap of sixty to a hundred feet in the shore end of the mole. The Frankfurter Zeitung, in commenting on the affair, said: "It would be foolish to deny that the British fleet scored a great success through a fantastically audacious stroke in penetrating into one of the most important strongholds over which the German flag floats." ATTACKS AT OSTEND At Ostend the operations on the same night were unsuccessful, largely owing to a shift of wind. Small craft with smoke apparatus ran in according to program, set up a screen, and lit two large flares to mark the entrance to the harbor for the two concrete-laden cruisers that were to be sunk in the channel. Before the cruisers could arrive, however, the wind shifted and blew away the smoke screen, after which the German gunfire quickly destroyed the flares. The cruisers tried to proceed by guesswork under heavy fire, but their efforts were in vain. One of the block ships was sunk, but not in a position to obstruct the channel. A second attempt to close the Ostend harbor was made on the night of May 9-10, when the battered old Vindictive, which had borne the brunt of the shellfire at the Zeebrugge mole, was sunk in the channel with her inside full of concrete. A member of the expedition gave this account: As the Vindictive neared Ostend it became apparent that the Germans had got wind of our presence, for suddenly there was a regular pyrotechnic display of star shells. The effect was brilliant, but quite undesirable from our point of view. Immediately guns of all sizes opened fire on us, and there was a terrific din.