Those who recall High Wood upon the Somme--and they must be many, as it was after the battles of 1916--may easily figure to themselves the decks of H.M.S. _Vindictive_ as she lies to-day, a stark, black profile, against the sea haze of the harbor amid the stripped, trim shapes of the fighting ships which throng these waters. That wilderness of debris, that litter of the used and broken tools of war, lavish ruin and that prodigal evidence of death and battle, are as obvious and plentiful here as there. The ruined tank nosing at the stout tree which stopped it has its parallel in the flame-thrower hut at the port wing of _Vindictive's_ bridge, its iron sides freckled with rents from machine-gun bullets and shell-splinters; the tall white cross which commemorates the martyrdom of the Londoners is sister to the dingy, pierced White Ensign which floated over the fight of the Zeebrugge Mole. [Sidenote: The _Iris_ and the _Daffodil_ which shared the honors.] Looking aft from the chaos of her wrecked bridge, one sees, snug against their wharf, the heroic bourgeois shapes of the two Liverpool ferry-boats (their captains' quarters are still labelled "Ladies Only") _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, which shared with _Vindictive_ the honors and ardors of the fight. The epic of their achievement shapes itself in the light of that view across the scarred and littered decks, in that environment of gray water and great still ships. [Sidenote: The three cruisers that were sunk at Zeebrugge.] Their objectives were the canal of Zeebrugge and the entrance to the harbor of Ostend--theirs, and those of five other veteran and obsolete cruisers and a mosquito fleet of destroyers, motor-launches and coastal motor-boats. Three of the cruisers, _Intrepid_, _Iphigenia_ and _Thetis_, each duly packed with concrete and with mines attached to her bottom for the purpose of sinking her, _Merrimac_-fashion, in the neck of the canal, were aimed at Zeebrugge; two others, similarly prepared, were directed at Ostend. The function of _Vindictive_, with her ferry-boats, was to attack the great half-moon Mole which guards the Zeebrugge Canal, land bluejackets and marines upon it, destroy what stores, guns, and Germans she could find, and generally create a diversion while the block-ships ran in and sank themselves in their appointed place. Vice Admiral Keyes, in the destroyer _Warwick_, commanded the operation. [Sidenote: The conditions favorable for the attack.]