The enemy was now in full flight, but the disabled _Broke_ succeeded in drawing level with one of the burning destroyers. Rapidly losing way, she nevertheless {219} approached her at considerable risk to herself, the enemy, who had previously been shouting for help, suddenly and unexpectedly opening fire--an act of treachery that, as it proved, merely hastened his end. Four rounds silenced him, and a torpedo aimed amidships struck him fairly and settled his fate. Meanwhile the _Swift_, herself partially disabled, had lost touch with the vanishing enemy, and, coming about, had sighted the destroyer rammed by the _Broke_ and now on the verge of sinking. Here, too, the sailors on board were chorussing their desire to surrender; but, with natural suspicion, the _Swift_ remained on guard, her guns trained on the sinking vessel. Presently this heeled over; the crew took to the water; and, as there seemed to be no other enemy vessel in sight, the _Swift_ cautiously switched on her searchlights, lowered her boats, and began the work of rescue. At the same time the _Broke_ began to signal to her--the whole fight had lasted barely five minutes--and the two crews were soon cheering each other, as well they might. Both the destroyers sunk were four-funnelled vessels of the fastest and latest German type; two others had been crippled; and over a hundred men and officers taken prisoners. When the _Broke_ rammed, as her helmsman had said, "I smiled for the first time during the action"--and that smile may be taken as representative not only of both ships' companies but of the town of Dover on that April morning, when the two destroyers, saluted by everything in the harbour, modestly crept to their buoys. {220} _Brilliant_ as this little action was, however, and typical both of the ineptitude with which the German destroyer-service was handled, and the prestige that the Dover Patrol had built up for itself during the war, it was but an incident of the ceaseless campaign, waged with almost every weapon in the Narrow Seas. Thus, while the coastal bombardments that had been so prominent a feature of the earlier months of the war were, for military reasons, deemed inadvisable during 1916 and 1917, an active blockade of the occupied Flanders area was maintained and vigorously pressed home.