THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ATTACK. A few seconds before the schedule time for the last alteration of course--designed to take us alongside the outer wall--the smoke screen, which had been drifting northwards before the new wind, suddenly cleared. Barely three hundred yards distant, dead ahead of us, appeared a long low dark object which was immediately recognised as the Mole itself with the lighthouse at its extremity. We had turned up heading direct for the six-gun battery exactly as arranged in the plan. Those who know aught of navigation will realise how far this was a fluke--probably the various errors in compass direction, allowance for tide, etc., had exactly cancelled one another. Course was altered immediately to the southwestward and speed was increased to the utmost. The Mole battery opened fire at once; our own guns, under the direction of Commander E. O. B. S. Osborne, replied with the utmost promptitude. The estimated distance at which we passed the Mole battery was two hundred and fifty yards off the eastern gun, gradually lessening to fifty yards off the western gun. It was truly a wonderful sight. The noise was terrific and the flashes of the Mole guns seemed to be within arm's length. Of course it was, to all intents and purposes, impossible for the Mole guns to miss their target. They literally poured {179} projectiles into us. In about five minutes we had reached the Mole, but not before the ship had suffered a great amount of damage to both _matériel_ and personnel. [Illustration: DIAGRAMMATIC SKETCH OF THE ATTACK. Drawn by Charies De Lacy from details supplied by the Author. A--H.M.S. Vindictive B--H.M.S. Daffodil C--H.M.S. Iris D--Coastal Motor Boats E--Steam pinnace F--Motor dinghey G--Submarine C3 H--S.S. Brussels I--German destroyers J--To Blankenberghe K--Motor launches L--Entanglement net boom M--H.M.S. Phoebe N--H.M.S. North Star O--Position of approach channel P--Rescue craft Q--Rescue craft R--H.M.S. Iphigenia S--H.M.S. Intrepid T--H.M.S. Thetis U--Trenches on Mole V--Trenches ashore W--H.M.S. Warwick X--The barge boom Y--The Canal Z--German batteries] [Sidenote: Running the Gantlet] Looked at from the view of a naval officer it was little short of criminal, on the part of the Mole battery, that the ship was allowed to reach her destination. Everything was in favour of the defence as soon as we had been sighted. Owing to the change of wind our special arrangements for covering the battery with smoke had failed in spite of the magnificent work of our small smoke vessels which, unsupported and regardless of risk, had laid the screen close to the foot of the wall, that is to say, right under the muzzles of the guns. From the moment when we were first sighted until arriving alongside the Mole the battery guns had a clear target, illuminated by star shell, of a size equal to half the length of the lighthouse extension itself.