These were rescued under most difficult circumstances, for the three were badly wounded and practically unable to help themselves. It was afterwards found that one of the rescued was Lieutenant Sir John Alleyne, on whom the command of the _Vindictive_ had fallen on the death of the gallant Godsal. Almost by a miracle M.-L. 276 got clear. Hit in fifty-five places and with three of her crew casualties, she managed to keep under way until picked up and taken in tow by the British monitor _Prince Eugene_. The heroic ending of the old _Vindictive_ was literally the clinching of the last nail in the coffin of the Huns' Belgian Coast defences. St. George's Day had all but completed the work; 10th May, 1918 settled it. From that day the Belgian ports were useless to the enemy both as torpedo-boat and submarine bases. The Dover Patrol had closed and secured the Gateway of the Channel against all hostile traffic both on and under the sea. CHAPTER XIX The Great Surrender "Think the beggars will put up a fight after all?" asked Lieutenant Alec Seton, D.S.C., as he raised his binoculars to sweep the misty eastern horizon. "Not they," replied Lieutenant-Commander Trevannion of H.M.T.B.D. _Bolero_. "What little stuffing they did have has sunk into their boots. But, by Jove! I never thought they'd chuck in their hands so completely. Try to imagine a British seaman showing the white feather like that--you simply couldn't, for the very good reason that it's not in his nature. Hullo! The flagship's signalling." It was a brand new _Bolero_ of which Lieutenant-Commander Trevannion was skipper; Seton, on promotion, being appointed his second-in-command. The _Scena_ was in the North Sea some miles to the east'ard of Harwich; the time, dawn of the 20th day of November, 1918. "The Day"--der Tag--was at hand. As Beatty had prophesied, the Huns had to come out, although the manner of their coming was greatly different from that which had been expected. Everyone was firmly convinced--it was an erroneous tribute to an upstart navy without a single tradition--that the German Navy would emerge at the last to commit _felo-de-se_ under the guns of the Grand Fleet. It seemed incredible that the array of battleships and cruisers, ostensibly built to wrest the trident from Britannia's grasp, would tamely surrender without firing a single shot. But such was the case. The handing over of the German battleships, cruisers, and destroyers had already been arranged, and the White Flag Armada was due at Scapa Flow on the following day. But the 20th of November was Tyrwhitt's Day--a fitting reward after four years of anxious watching, mingled with a few glorious scraps when Fritz did show his nose out of harbour. The first batch of 150 U-boats was due to arrive, officered by recreant Huns who, had they lived in a different age, would have been promptly hanged in chains at Execution Dock as common pirates.